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The Performance cover art

The Performance

By: Claire Thomas
Narrated by: Edwina Wren, Harvey Zielinski, Helen Morse, Lara Robinson, Melissa Madden Gray, Sylvie DeCrespigny, Tamala Shelton
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Publisher's Summary

The false cold of the theatre makes it hard to imagine the heavy wind outside in the real world, the ash air pressing onto the city from the nearby hills where bushfires are taking hold.

The house lights lower.

The auditorium feels hopeful in the darkness.

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.
©2021 Claire Thomas (P)2021 Hachette Australia Pty
City Life Genre Fiction Urban
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Critic Reviews

"I read from start to finish almost without looking up, and suspect I will be carrying these characters with me for some time yet." (Clare Bowditch, author of Your Own Kind of Girl) 

"Read it as soon as you possibly can." (Emily Bitto, author of The Strays) 

"An enigmatic, elegant and assured novel that explores the power of art in revealing us to ourselves." (Charlotte Wood, author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend) 

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What listeners say about The Performance

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Unusual perspectives

Enjoyed it from the outset but as the story moved on through the sets and characters I was more intrigued and involved with it

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.