The audience is expecting laughter, romance and an evening’s entertainment. But backstage, jealousy and secrets are growing. When the curtain rises, reality begins to take over the performance, until no one can tell where acting ends and reality begins.

In Nora Nilsson’s new production, the theatre itself takes centre stage. A travelling company arrives in a place where everyone is eager to be entertained.

But while the audience waits for the show to begin, Nedda is trying to escape a life she no longer wants, and Canio is struggling to hold both the performance and himself together. “Laugh, clown,” he sings desperately in the iconic aria “Vesti la giubba”.

With its passionate emotions, immortal music and some of opera’s most dramatic scenes, Pagliacci is a story of love, betrayal and the price of continuing to play a part when everything is falling apart.

Cast subject to change.