Varifocal glasses at the theatre

Never had a problem - after wearing them for a while you autocorrect your head position as necessary. Might not work in the Haymarket cheap seats though.

Thanks everyone. This is very encouraging. I'd pretty much decided to get them anyway, because I'm fed up with switching between distance and reading pairs in my non-theatregoing life, but nice to know they are likely to work for theatre too.

I have varifocals too. Been wearing them for years. Yes you have to adjust your head. One thing I do struggle with is going down stairs

I have varifocals, have been fine in the theatre. Not so good for reading for me though, hoping to get new ones soon.

I've never used varifocals for any distance activity; I have 2 pairs of distance glasses (same prescription), 1 of which lives permanently in my car for driving and the other in my bag for theatre and cinema. For work and screen use at home I have 2 pairs of glasses with "blended varifocal" (or "occupational") lenses, which would be unsuitable for use more than a short distance away. This solution works best for me as when I did try varifocals with 3 zones, including distance, they drove me mad as I could never work out which of the 3 layers of the lenses I was meant to be looking through and as I could also see below and above the frame, I was potentially trying to choose from 5 different options.

hannechalk My optician referred me to Moorfields (my local eye hospital) who deemed that it was too soon for surgery. I presume they are filling their schedules with people whose need is greater than mine at this stage. When I did some research it seems that this is a common experience - I saw figures suggesting that 40% of those referred for surgery are told to come back at some later stage. So glad to hear yet another positive experience of surgery - I'm sure my time will come.

I found Varifocal type lens OK for the theatre but when driving and at a junction I often seemed to be looking through the wrong bit. These were Zeiss lens, if I remember, and I understand may be different from Varifocal brand. I have gone over to ordinary lens, they are a lot cheaper £25 against £200? and I get on fine with them apart from having to have a cheap pair of Lidls reading glasses handy. I was told I had the start of cataracts about ten years ago. The last time I went to my opticians, the Institute of Optometry opposite the Southwark Playhouse, they said that it usually takes ten years before surgery needed but I was OK for a while yet.