“A good story needs a clear beginning. It needs something strong, something dynamic to get the ball rolling.” Such are the opening lines of Forced Entertainment’s newest journey into the inexplicable, The Coming Storm. These words are delivered by one performer with neither emotion nor a sense of the irony they entail. It is only once another character chooses to snatch the microphone away that this stunted introduction gives way to a rolling, democratic series of bizarre and unbelievable anecdotes, told in turn by each of the six performers.

The Coming Storm places more emphasis on narrative than some of the company’s previous shows, such as last year’s dance-heavy The Thrill Of It All, but the strands of stories are infinitely fragmented and deliciously bamboozling. This is not a theatre of structured scenes and happy endings. A dull man drawls about falling in love with a foreign girl on a European coach trip; a woman plays through the same phone call again and again, each time changing the location, tone or respondent; a crocodile costume is dragged casually across the stage and then forgotten for another half an hour. The overall meaning of events is unclear but the atmosphere is one of impending doom as characters’ pasts and futures weave in and out of one another like a beautiful yet abstract tapestry.

Music plays a huge role in this textural, experiential brand of theatre. Whether it is a repeating drum beat or a dissonant chord on the upright piano around which much of the action centres, music punctuates, illustrates and complements the multiple narratives of The Coming Storm. It is not played with finesse or flair (indeed most of the company were previously unable to play an instrument) but with steady atmospheric determination and a strange, shy kind of soulfulness. What really makes the show exceptional, however, is the way in which its company’s performers bounce off one another, often to hilarious comic effect and sometimes with stark isolation. One performer interjects that she has forgotten to do her ‘dance,’ at which point she proceeds to cover herself in a thin sheet and move around the stage like an infantile ghost in slow motion. Performers fight for attention like children dancing in and out of the spotlight, one man makes half-hearted attempts to commit suicide by hanging a noose from a clothing rail no taller than himself.

The Coming Storm is sad, funny and beautifully hypnotic throughout. Perhaps its two uninterrupted hours of engaging nonsense drag a little at points, but the company is nothing if not challenging towards its audiences and the final moments, including a revelation with the ominous crocodile costume and the show’s final haunting piano chords, make every minute worthwhile. Forced Entertainment is certainly not for everybody, least of all those who like their theatre to answer its own questions (one spectator even left the auditorium muttering “well I’m sure they entertained themselves!”). For those who take pleasure in the surreal, however, The Coming Storm is a darkly devised moment of wonderment.

The Coming Storm was at Battersea Arts Centre as part of LIFT, which continues until 15 July. For more information on the festival’s events, visit the website here.