Investigating characters without any invite, suspiciously - they're putting it on (7)
I believe the answer is:
staging
'investigating characters' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with communicating as well as being present participle verbs.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'without any invite suspiciously they're putting it on' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'it' could be 'tag' (playground catching game) and 'tag' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'sing' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for staging that I've seen before include "in the greenhouse" , "Putting on (a play)" , "Putting on a show" , "Mounting (a play)" .)