Ron Charles's Reviews > The Performance
The Performance
by
by
Once seen, she cannot be unseen: a chatty middle-aged woman buried in a mound up to her waist.
“Waiting for Godot” may be better known, but for unnerving visual impact, nothing tops Samuel Beckett’s “Happy Days.”
The absurdist play, perhaps the most stationary in the Western canon, has challenged actresses and viewers since it was first performed 60 years ago. How did this woman — Winnie — find herself embedded in the ground?
“What’s the idea of you?” Winnie recalls once being asked by a passerby. “What are you meant to mean?”
That is the question, as another great soliloquy notes.
Winnie’s good cheer seems alternately the best and the most horrific response to her rootedness. Even in the second act, by which time she’s buried up to her neck, she’s still exclaiming, “Oh this is a happy day!”
Is that optimism or madness?
Australian writer Claire Thomas has just published “The Performance,” a curious novel about three women watching “Happy Days.” It begins moments before the lights go down in the theater. Some 228 pages later, members of the audience file out to the parking lot.
The end. Thank you for coming.
As a plot, that sounds like Beckett squared. The fact that “The Performance” works at all is noteworthy; that it’s engaging and evocative is something of a miracle.
Thomas moves chapter by chapter around her three female protagonists sitting.....
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
“Waiting for Godot” may be better known, but for unnerving visual impact, nothing tops Samuel Beckett’s “Happy Days.”
The absurdist play, perhaps the most stationary in the Western canon, has challenged actresses and viewers since it was first performed 60 years ago. How did this woman — Winnie — find herself embedded in the ground?
“What’s the idea of you?” Winnie recalls once being asked by a passerby. “What are you meant to mean?”
That is the question, as another great soliloquy notes.
Winnie’s good cheer seems alternately the best and the most horrific response to her rootedness. Even in the second act, by which time she’s buried up to her neck, she’s still exclaiming, “Oh this is a happy day!”
Is that optimism or madness?
Australian writer Claire Thomas has just published “The Performance,” a curious novel about three women watching “Happy Days.” It begins moments before the lights go down in the theater. Some 228 pages later, members of the audience file out to the parking lot.
The end. Thank you for coming.
As a plot, that sounds like Beckett squared. The fact that “The Performance” works at all is noteworthy; that it’s engaging and evocative is something of a miracle.
Thomas moves chapter by chapter around her three female protagonists sitting.....
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
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Reading Progress
March 22, 2021
–
Started Reading
March 22, 2021
– Shelved
March 22, 2021
– Shelved as:
novels-about-art
March 24, 2021
–
Finished Reading