The Performance

Three women watch a Beckett play while bushfires rage outside the city, transforming their understanding of the world.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 07 April 2022
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co

The Times hailed it as a "tour de force," praising its exceptional quality and recommending it highly. Patrick Gale described it as "innovative" and an "original, at-a-sitting read," while the Daily Mail praised it as a "potent meditation on the intensity of women's lives." Charlotte Wood, author of "The Weekend," called it a "miracle," describing it as "engaging and evocative." The Washington Post declared it "unmissable," while Emma Stone, author of "The Lamplighters," praised it as "lively and intimate." Claire Fuller, author of "Unsettled Ground," praised Thomas's writing, stating that he writes these women with such wisdom and compassion that by the end, we are all transformed.

The false cold of the theatre makes it hard to imagine the heavy wind outside in the real world, the ash air pressing onto the city from the nearby hills where bushfires are taking hold. The house lights lower. The auditorium feels hopeful in the darkness. As bushfires rage outside the city, three women watch a performance of a Beckett play. Margot is a successful professor, preoccupied by her fraught relationship with her ailing husband. Ivy is a philanthropist with a troubled past, distracted by the snoring man beside her. Summer is a young theatre usher, anxious about the safety of her girlfriend in the fire zone. As the performance unfolds, so does each woman's story. By the time the curtain falls, they will all have a new understanding of the world beyond the stage.

Weight: 266g
Dimension: 131 x 196 x 29 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781474617000