THE PERFORMANCE

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.