The music of a hand-cranked pianola fills the tiny theatre. It reminds me irresistibly of the tinny accompaniment for early black-and-white silent films with Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton. But tonight, the action is live, on stage, in full colour, and the story is set in the era of Charlemagne and his favourite knights, the Paladins.
The Paladin Rinaldo (or perhaps Orlando) strides boldly to centre-stage, to confront a fearsome Saracen warrior.