Sharon's Reviews > The Performance

★★★★½

The Performance is an immersive experience that truly emulates what it's like to spend a couple of hours at the theatre. Thomas brings readers into the interior thoughts, fears and emotions of three Melburnian women of different ages and backgrounds, who are watching the same performance of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days. As a huge theatre fan I adored the premise and its execution, although the blurb had implied a more interconnected denouement between the characters than the one that eventuated.

Margot, Summer and Ivy are all watching Happy Days at the Melbourne Arts Centre, amid Australia's black summer of bushfires in 2019/20. Margot is an esteemed literature professor, whose husband's memory loss is starting to shake her. Summer is an acting student working as an usher, terrified for her girlfriend, whose family lives in the fireline. Ivy is a middle aged philanthropist being wooed by the theatre company, but thinking mostly about her children. All are pondering their lives, especially their fears, while reacting to the play in front of them. And as readers, we plunge into their minds for the duration of the performance.

Summer was the most vivid character for me; Thomas' descriptions of her existential anxiety about climate change and her girlfriend April's safety were so powerful against the stillness of the theatre and the drama of the play. Her voice was also the most distinctive and striking. Yet Margot also wormed her way into my sympathies, as the extent of her circumstances became clear, including the heartbreaking communication gap with her son. While Ivy's narration stood out less to me, by the end of the novel all three women felt like real people I had come to know and understand.

Thomas' writing has the immense skill of placing the reader inside the heads of these women. Think about any time you've been to the theatre. The way your mind takes some time to focus, skittering between your to do list and deeper worries, before flitting back to the action on stage, then being sent back into your memories with a line or gesture the actors deliver. Thomas captures this inner monologue with astonishing accuracy so that the reading experience is like taking your seat in a theatre. I really recommend trying to read each Act in one sitting, as if at a play.

One of the best devices Thomas uses is to literally script the intermission, and narrate the performance in prose, inverting the traditional approach. In doing so she reminds us the three women are characters we are ourselves watching as they step out of the auditorium, transitioning from the watcher to the watched. Thomas achieves this with an elegant simplicity I adored.

My only regret reading this was that I wasn't familiar with the themes and complexities of Happy Days, which I suspect would have added another layer of appreciation to the cleverness of this story. You certainly don't need to know the play as Thomas gives enough descriptions to follow along, but I suspect some of its gendered, existential struggles were mirrored in Thomas' characters - but cannot say for sure.

This is undoubtedly the sort of story I expect to see on prize lists like the Stella and the Miles Franklin - for originality, yes, but also for the deep insight into women at different stages of their lives, placed centre stage. It's also exciting to see Australian authors experimenting with form in accessible ways. Highly recommended, especially for readers who enjoyed Eleanor Catton's The Rehearsal.

I received a copy of The Performance from Hachette Australia in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.