As the Birds dance, four Icarus figures gather to watch in envy from the sidelines. These mechanical birds evoke the precarious human desire to replicate the flight of birds and, more broadly the hope that technology will deliver the wonders that nature has denied us. The Icarus figures are backpack costumes, with folding gossamer wings are fashioned after the glider designs of Da Vinci and aeronauts of the 19th century. The metallic clockwork heads allude to the eponymous nightingale of Hans Christian Andersen’s parable of mechanical obsession. Just as the Birds had their ribbon attendants, the Icarus puppets have their retinue of 9 winged toasters and alarm clocks (“tempus fugit”) representing both the heady aspirations and absurd cul-de-sacs into which modern technology leads us.