Welcome to Gutterland. Nothing is normal down here. There is a bakery, but it sells potty cakes. There is a king, but he's mad (his minister, though, is sinister, as can happen in real life). The sewage workers are locked in battle with vicious demons disguised as poisonous gases and polythene bags. And in case you're in the mood for music, the resident French opera singer is happy to oblige.

That's the sort of cuckoo world that the audience for a new musical will be introduced to when it's staged this weekend. It's called Utterly Gutterly Atrocious after a delicious butter brand's tagline. And the two central characters in it are a hare and tortoise, who have set out to change the way we all run the rat race, asking us, "Why climb the ladder of success if we are anyway headed for disaster?"