Wendy Vymura was the toast of the town. Her dazzling stage-show Always a Party! had sold out the Clinkskell Playhouse for 43 consecutive nights and received rave reviews from all the right places and faces. But to experienced stage-hand and eminent Gonk Magician Susie Worsely, everything about it seemed rather peculiar…

To start with, Wendy’s Troupe The Laughing Volunteers all spoke in a strange antiquated manner and their off-stage movements were often weirdly erratic. They didn’t seem to sleep, but kept themselves constantly awake by consuming vast quantities of Fancy Fizz, a disgusting new energetic beverage.

Late at night along the gloomiest theatre corridors, Susie could often hear fairground music… but where was it coming from? She’d also noticed that at each performance the audiences themselves seemed to be getting gradually smaller. Not in number, but in stature ~ as though they’d been slightly shrunk in the wash. And she was pretty sure they were getting furrier too.

Then Susie accidentally finds a jam factory hidden in her dressing room, and realises that this eerie building isn’t really a theatre at all…