flights for future generations

The show, flights for future generations tells the history of women aviators through objects, memories, fragments, and voiceover, turning the stage into a kind of analogue tapestry harking back to the bravery of its subjects. Light, movement, fans, cassettes and vinyl are all put to work, and some of the stagecraft is genuinely lovely.

The cleverness of the devices is also where the piece risks losing itself. The narrative is frayed in parts, much like its fragmented sources, though this means the history of the women at its centre can feel secondary to the mechanisms used to tell it.

Still, there is a real theatrical intelligence here. The objects and machinery are not simply decoration; they create a visual and physical, and sometimes tactile language as the audience are blasted with the wind of the skies. It's this very ingenuity of the women it portrays that permeates each level of depth in a captivating way.

flights for future generations by Lindsey Barlag Thornton. Credit Claire Demos.