The Watts Memorial of Heroic Deeds in London's Postman's Park, which celebrates selfless acts of everyday heroism by ordinary people, has already featured on stage in Patrick Marber's Closer, where the character of Alice takes her name from the plaque to Alice Ayres, who died in 1885 rescuing her master's children from a house fire.
It is not just Ayres, but the stories of 53 people whose lives were lost saving others that get an airing here in Lone Twin's piece. It becomes a roll-call of death staged in style recalling Victorian melodrama or the music hall and living tableaux of the era. The result is touchingly comic and oddly moving. "Ladies and gents. Stay with us. Stay alive," exhort our hosts. It is good advice - as the body count rises, life feels fragile, and it becomes clear that Victorian England was a catastrophe of runaway express trains, out-of-control horses and fast-flowing rivers. There is even a pantomime artist burned to death rescuing an actor set ablaze by footlights.
As the piece progresses you become aware that what you are witnessing is a celebration of failure. Not only did the protagonists lose their own lives, but in many cases the person or people they were trying to save died, too. Yet the playfulness and freshness of Lone Twin's approach turns the maudlin into a shy affirmation of life and the need to honour heroics whatever the outcome.
