Don costume to present performance (5)

I believe the answer is:

puton

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'performance' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't judge whether it can be defined by this definition.

'don costume to present' is the wordplay.
'don costume' becomes 'on' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'to' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'present' becomes 'put'.
'on' put after 'put' is 'PUTON'.

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.

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