Reality of female performance (4)
I believe the answer is:
fact
'reality' is the definition.
(fact is a kind of reality)
'female performance' is the wordplay.
'female' becomes 'f' (common abbreviation).
'performance' becomes 'act' (act is a kind of performance).
'f'+'act'='FACT'
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for fact that I've seen before include "Item of truth" , "Something known to be true" , "Not fake news!" , "Truth, reality" , "matter of record" .)