The Rehearsal

As a rumour spreads about a teacher sleeping with a student, a group of teenage girls are jolted into new awareness of their own vertiginous sexuality. Ripples move outward in unexpected directions: the saxophone teacher directs the girls in rehearsing their desires, and the local drama school adapts the scandal for a show.

Every action is a performance, and every platform a stage. The boundaries between private and public begin to dissolve – or perhaps they were never there.

Boldly inventive, unsettling, and exhilarating, The Rehearsal is a tender evocation of its young protagonists and a shrewd exposé of emotional compromise. It reveals the singular daring that has defined Catton’s career.