The Performance

March 15, 2021
In the audience at a Melbourne theater, three distantly connected women watching a classic 20th-century drama consider their individual pasts, presents, and futures. Tight on structure, heavy on interiority, and light on events, Australian writer Thomas' second novel hinges on the private thoughts of her three principal characters, who are attending a performance of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days. Margot, in her early 70s, is an academic approaching retirement whose 40-year marriage is being undermined by her husband's failing memory and increasing tendency toward violence. She's covered in bruises. At the other end of the age spectrum, 22-year-old acting student Summer, working as an usher, is preoccupied with her girlfriend, April, who's driving into bush-fire territory to help her parents. Philanthropist Ivy, in her early 40s, is the least stressed of the three. "An orphan with a fortune," she's able to offer financial aid to the theater. She also acts as connective tissue between Margot (who was once her teacher) and Summer, whom she upsets with a question during intermission. The bulk of the narrative is spent exploring the women's ruminations as they watch Winnie, the main character in the play, who's initially buried up to her waist, then her neck, while prattling about her marriage. As the three mentally debate their own concerns in a heavily air-conditioned auditorium, the air outside is filling with the smoke of environmental tragedy. Thomas sensitively and intricately pieces together the trio's individual histories and psyches and larger issues while refracting lines from Beckett's play into their thoughts. But the effect is inescapably static, and the conclusions offered for all three characters lack conviction. An intimate, compassionate, and unusual novel constrained by its architecture.

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Starred review from March 15, 2021
A darkened theater, a provocative play, an existential crisis looming outside its doors--all make for the perfect confluence of events in which three women engage in the kind of ruminations that can lead to life-changing behavior. Taking her seat, Margot reflects on the pressure she's getting from her university to retire, the unfortunate estrangement from her only son, and the increasing violence of her beloved but ailing husband. Rows away, arts philanthropist Ivy recalls the traumatic days following the death of her first child years earlier amid concerns over her newborn son. Only drama student Summer seems hyper-aware of the wildfires raging nearby, threatening the life of her girlfriend and her family. When the three women meet during intermission, the coincidences that brought them to that evening's performance illuminate the unexpected ways lives both intersect and deflect. Australian writer Thomas portrays three generations of women--anxious, resolute, uncertain--who emerge as indelible avatars for the human condition in times of crisis. Their regrets and recriminations, promises of improvement, and plans for atonement all play out within a finely wrought framework. Plumbing themes of intimacy, ambition, grief, and longing with a clarity that is both universal and precise, Thomas' slim novel offers a rich source for book groups and all contemplative readers.

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