Catastrophe Trilogy by Lone Twin at the Barbican

There are two types of trilogy: episodic and conceptual. The first instalment of an episodic trilogy often stands on its own merit without its sequels but there is usually little point in taking in parts two and three if you haven’t seen the first. Different rules apply to a conceptual three-parter like Lone Twin’s Catastrophe Trilogy, currently in the Pit theatre at the Barbican.

No linear narrative thread runs through the company’s trio of 70 minute vignettes but the three plays are nonetheless connected by the surreal simplicity of the storytelling: the five actors make use of ukuleles and their own bodies, on a simple set with minimal furniture, to draw their audience through the looking glass into a universe where a girl being blown to bits is a happy ending.

Not everyone will like Lone Twin’s style: a patchwork of song, dance and chant weaved around the scant skeleton of story in each piece. Daniel Hit By A Train is supposed to be a celebration of the heroism of ordinary people who give their lives to save others but it feels more like listening to an hour long advert for smoke alarms and, by the end, you wish Daniel had been the actor with the infernal drum.

Alice Bell is a story about an ill-starred relationship between members of opposing factions in a deeply divided community and it is in this play that the company’s musical talents really come to the fore. If you only see one of the trilogy then make it Festival, a modern boy meets girl fable that somehow manages to combine nostalgia for childhood summer holidays with a nuanced consideration of how adult children cope with the bereaved survivor after the death of the other parent: it sounds a lot less funny than it is.