Welcome to Noeple Blood, a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from

Aaron Manky, listener discretion advised.

On the evening of May 8, 1777, the city of London was preparing for a night of

theater. Backstage at the Drury Lane Theatre, customers frantically

mended seams and wrangled actors into wardrobe, while stage hands meticulously

accounted for each of the props that would inevitably pass through their hands before

the night was over. But as candles were lit and set pieces were placed just so, beyond

the thin walls of the theater, another show was already well into its first act. The doors

to the Drury Lane Theatre's House lobby were open, and the audience's arrivals brought

with them a spectacle all their own. A seemingly endless parade of carriages lined the street

outside, as women with impossibly tall hairpieces were forced to maneuver themselves

with an excess of caution, so as not to topple the glorified sculptures balanced precariously

atop their heads. When theatergoers finally managed to make their way past the front

doors and into the theater lobby, typical patrons of the Drury Lane may have been slightly

puzzled at the appearance of not only so many women dressed in over-the-top finery, but

men as well, flaunting tightly-fit waistcoats and high-heeled shoes paired with almost

comically small hats, skewed crookedly on their heads. Opening nights were celebratory

occasions to be sure, but these types of fashion statements were excessive even for the

theater. Though given what they were about to watch, heightened states of dress were

hardly going to be considered drama by the night's end. Technically speaking, the crowd

was there to watch the opening night performance of Playwright Richard Sheridan's newest play,

The School for Scandal. But in the weeks leading up to the production, it had quickly become

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