In Learning Lines, Cathy Thomas takes the reader behind the curtain of the theatre industry, revealing its universal anxieties while at the same time detailing a dark world abundant with its own fakeries and faultlines. In two stories that explore the cracks wrought by a hyper-sexist culture as well as the slow-burn anticipation of young adulthood and the promise of fame, this is exquisitely written fiction that ultimately affirms life in the face of all its disappointments and trials.