Booking was quite confusing. Online I was told that I had a seat in "Zone B - Best available" for £20, i.e. I did not have a specified seat number at that time. Because of the confusion I went to the theatre before eating in Culture Grub next door. Then I was given a ticket that said I had seat A49.
Half an hour later on entering the theatre I found somebody else sitting in my place. That was fair enough as his ticket also said A49. An usher took our two tickets away and when he returned I was given A49 again and the other man was reseated somewhere in row C.
The stage was similar to that used for Yerma, a high stage ran from left to right with seating on both sides. The floor was at about eye height. Not ideal but at least there was not the glass wall between performers and audience that Yerma had.
Wings was a simple play about an elderly woman, Emily, who has a stroke while reading comfortably in her armchair and then fights to recover some of her lost facilities. There are conversations where she goes unheard by the staff trying to help her and later, as she recovers a little, there are conversations consisting of gibberish. It is an intense and emotional portrayal of what it is like to have a stroke and Juliet Stevenson was superb as Emily.
The production did not help. Emily had been an aviator so Juliet Stevenson was given wires to fly above the stage and she wore these for most of the 75 minutes that the performance lasted. It was quite a sight to see her flying and spinning above the stage but I found it something of a distraction and I would much rather have seen her act being in the air than actually being in the air. It did not help either that I had to look even further up to see the action.
It was easiest just to ignore that flying and to concentrate on Juliet Stevenson instead. And that was a very rewarding thing to do.
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