A SHOCKED worker from the failed Wonka experience has revealed she was hired to play a ‘sexy’ Oompa Loompa – and claims she still hasn’t been paid.
Actor Jenny Fogarty, 25, was hired for the doomed event in Glasgow which was cancelled halfway through after furious parents complained and demanded refunds.
It had been billed as a magical and immersive experience for families.
But the event, run by House of Illuminati, cost parents £35 a ticket and left kids in tears due to how poor the production and props were.
Parents have claimed they waited 45 minutes in a queue to go through the entire event in just seven minutes.
Police were even called in following backlash from fuming families as they vented their frustration to organisers.
And workers have lifted the lid on the chaos inside the venue – insisting they were left “embarrassed”.
Jenny claims she was given a 15-page “script” to learn the night before the event.
And she was horrified to find the Oompa Loompa costume she was given was the “sexy” version after being handed it just moments before it started.
The performer told SWNS: “I was there from Saturday. I was hired as an Oompa Loompa.
Most read in The Scottish Sun
“I didn’t get a costume until Saturday morning, about an hour before people started to arrive.
“I noticed that the costumes we were given – all of them were female, and we were given the sexy version as opposed to the traditional ones.
“Some people had T-shirts underneath to give it a bit more modesty. I just had a lacy shirt underneath.
“The wigs were very cheap. We were just handed an Amazon box that probably arrived that morning.”
Having been given their script the night before, Jenny says they were asked to improvise but having had no time to rehearse, it eventually fell apart.
She added: “It was shocking. It was embarrassing to be pretty honest.
“We were trying our best, all the actors, to make it work.
“But we were given just 12 hours to learn our script and told to just improvise. It’s not easy to improvise a whole show.”
The actor also claims she and her fellow workers are yet to be paid for the event despite being offered £16.66 an hour for her role.
And she revealed some people were forced to give statements to the police after officers were called by fuming parents on Saturday.
Jenny said: “By the end, understandably, people were getting really annoyed.
“That’s when the security came up to me and told me they were shutting it down.
“When we went back to get to our cars, that’s when we saw the police had showed up.
“One of the actors who played a Wonka gave a statement to the police.”
Billy Coull, the director of the company, was forced to issue an apology for the “sheer and utter disappointment” blaming technical difficulties for the chaos.
And he said everyone would be offered full refunds.
He told STV: “I’m so, so sorry to everybody for the sheer and utter disappointment.
“We did decide to continue the event in the best manner in which we could.
“However, again, I am deeply disappointed.”
The event has since been compared to the Fyre Festival Scandal made famous by a Netflix documentary.
Train operator ScotRail tweeted: “Fyre Festival (Scotland’s version).”
After the Wonka event in Glasgow, one family told the Scottish Sun everyone was kicking off and kids were in tears after experiencing the event.
Paula Graham, her husband Andy, daughter Anna, and a family friend had travelled for the event but slammed the experience.
She said: “In my eyes I thought it was going to be some kind of light show with actors.
“I felt it was going to have sweets and they were taking about a chocolate river.
“But it was a big warehouse with some props in it and some sheets.
“The actual experience took two minutes to walk through because there was nothing there.
“When we arrived so many people had complained that they shut it down.
“You couldn’t even call it an event – it was terrible.
“The guy was saying ‘just have a wee walk through and you’ll get a refund’.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
“It was shocking for the money you paid.”
House of Illuminati has been contacted for comment.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/feed/
Iona Brownlie
