f you're looking for an impeccably acted, thought-provoking tale of the nature of illness and the effects on those who care for sufferers, then try to catch the Torch Theatre's latest production, A Prayer for Wings

Sean Mathias's Edinburgh Fringe award winning play centres around the lives of 20-year-old Rita and her 40-something Mam, who is struck down by multiple sclerosis.

Living on the breadline in a disused Swansea church in the early 1980s, Rita has forsaken much of her youth in the cause of looking after her Mam, and A Prayer for Wings is a bitter-sweet exploration of the nature of family love and how the demands of caring affects the carer.

Brilliantly observed, it is a bleak, yet touching, study of who the real victim of a disease is, with Rita seeking to break the monotony of her existence by prostituting herself to the local boys in a bid to not only supplement their income, but also to find 'an angel' who will take her away from it all.

Graphic, hard-hitting, with powerful language, A Prayer for Wings shies from a moral highground, however, allowing the characters to outline their own personal needs, fears and frustrations to allow the audience to make their own judgements, and in turn one feels empathy, sympathy and even disappointment.

Tempering its hard edge with humour, you become emotionally involved with the characters as the story unfolds, you become totally absorbed as their existence eats away at them both, before a moving - if not totally unexpected - denouement.

It is one thing to have the building blocks in an award-winning script, but it takes that added something to make equally praiseworthy theatre, and director Peter Doran certainly has that added something in spades.

His deft direction, coupled with powerful performances from Helen Griffin, as Mam, and Catrin Rhys, as Rita, makes this production a real tour-de-force, where every nuance, pause and glance adds as much depth and texture as the spoken word.

Catrin commands attention as Rita, a girl still strangely immature for one forced to grow up so quickly. One feels her inner torment as she is torn between wanting her own life and the family bond which sees her sacrificing that to remain with her Mam.

Helen is equally memorable as Mam, a woman who puts her faith in God to provide, without really realising just how much Rita does for her, and is rather insular in her thinking

Both characters have a degree of selfishness - each thinking the other lacks compassion and understanding - but the subtlety of the performances conveys the underlying realisation that, despite the tension and friction between them, the two are nothing without each other.

Although basically a 'two-hander', able support is given by Ben Mckay who astutely imbues each of Rita's succession of 'gentlemen callers' with individual characters of their own.

The set design by James Humphrey also enhances the feeling of desolation and claustrophobia experienced by Rita and Mam in this superb production.

A Prayer for Wings is currently touring Wales, England and Ireland, before returning to the Torch for a further week starting March 13. Book your seats now!