The Performance

'Quietly transformational' The Times 'Innovative... an original, at-a-sitting read' Daily Mail 'A potent meditation on the intensity of women's lives' Charlotte Wood, author of The Weekend 'A miracle... Engaging and evocative' Washington Post *'*I loved and admired The Performance... Unmissable' Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters 'Lively and intimate... The way Thomas plays with the reader is a sort of genius' Guardian 'Thomas writes these women with such wisdom and compassion, that by the end we are all transformed' Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground Melbourne, Australia. 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.