There's an usher smoking in a nearby alleyway.

"Do we want to try to get tickets to whatever's playing? Orrrr just interrogate that guy about regulars?"

"Cheaper option first."

Zoe goes up to him. "Hey, could I bum a cig?"

"Sure!"

Zoe smiles and accepts the cigarette. As she lights it, she asks "So, you work here?"

"Yep." He looks her up and down. "Why, you looking to check it out for a date?"

She laughs. "For that, I'd need someone romantic enough to take a girl to a place like this! I would love to get to see what it's like inside, though... I bet it's grand."

"It really is! All the operas are in Italian though. I don't speak a word of it. Don't know what the English people get out of it. Maybe they're all just pretending to like it."

"Do you get a lot of English people in the audience?"

"Oh, yeah, Malta's full of English people. Because we're a colony."

"I guess maybe all the colonists like showing off for each other."

"Yeah! Exactly. It's not like any of them speak Italian either."

"I saw one name on the donor plaques that looked Italian, at least. What was it... Sapienza?"

"Oh, Portia Sapienza? Yeah. She used to be a regular here. She and Montgomery Donovan used to come by all the time. Miss Donovan still does, but hardly ever makes it through a show anymore."

"Too bored without someone to translate the Italian for her?"

"I guess! I saw her leave crying once though. I wonder if something happened to them? A shame, if so. Nice folks."

"Oh, poor woman. Was she the one who made the donation in Portia's name?"

"I don't know, I'm just an usher. Big donors though."
 
 

"It sounds like big fans, too."

"Yeah!"

"Did they come to every show, or did they have particular favorites?"

"Her favorite was-- what was it called? A Brecht. Der Jasager."

"Oh, was that the one about the boy on the mountain?"

"Yes! Apparently you do like opera."