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The weather on opening night is clear and mild, without a cloud in the sky to threaten to dampen the audience's enthusiasm with rain. Backstage, actors and stagehands bustle back and forth in the controlled chaos that is the Odeon before a show as you stroll in through the courtyard.

Outside the theater, a sign boldly painted in gilded letters proclaims "The Prince's Wedding, a tragedy." If you don't want the letters to be painted over tomorrow, tonight's performance had better be a success.