Bone is Bane

As hinted in my previous post, here comes my review of an amazing one-man show, Bane.

Bane is the product of the twisted mind (when something is truly good, refreshing, mindbogglingly enticing, it must be a product of a twisted mind, not an ordinary one) of one Joe Bone of Whitebone Productions. I do not know much about Mr. Bone, I must admit, only that a couple years back he started writing and performing his show that is now a complete (or not?) trilogy of three separate performances: Bane 1: Someone’s Gonna Pay, Bane 2: The Beast Within, and Bane 3: Welcome to Sunnyview.

Here’s what the Fringe page has to say about Bane 3, the show I had the unspoken pleasure to watch, sink in, digest, and keep alive in my mind:

Bane 3 makes it’s debut Edinburgh appearance alongside smash hits Bane and Bane 2. Hired hand Bruce Bane steps out in Joe Bone’s trilogy of high-octane one-man film noir parodies and this time he’s shooting first and asking questions later. Creaking under the weight of awards and critical acclaim these are three shows not to miss. Bone brings these quick fire comedies to boiling point with just his body, his voice and a live guitar soundtrack from one-man Morriconne, Ben Roe.

When I read this, two words struck gold in my mind: film noire. I am an afficionado of the old, gritty black & white movies from the 40s and the 50s about rough private eyes, crooked cops, cocky gangsters and damsels who provide distress. Sam Spade of the Maltese Falcon, Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, Carol Reed’s The Third Man. To me even the excellent, fairly recent Pulp Fiction holds a lot of a film noire’s charm. I was immediately entranced by a vision a not-so-stellar hero in the centre of a dark, corrupt world, yet with laughs thrown in. So, I forked out a tenner without any second thoughts, and made Bane 3 a part of my day at the Fringe Festival.

I have to admit, I almost came in late. When I entered the blackness of a crowded, stuffy room of Ace Dome and the Pleasance Courtyard, the actor and his guitarist sidekick were already starting. I managed to draw the gaze of Mr. Bone for a second, as I made it in and stopped close to the door, convinced there was no room elsewhere. Then I was chased to the back by ticket crew, and found out there was indeed ample room on the other side – but not one empty chair. Unabashed, I stood and watched the hour-long story unfold, and I hardly felt any discomfort because of it.

Bane 3 starts with a bang a Hollywood blockbuster wouldn’t be ashamed of. Only here we have one man, walking, running, jumping and miming in a 6×6 feet space, doing his own sound effects, gesturing, playing every single character, changing voices and accents accordingly. I am no expert on accents, but in my book, Mr. Bone, who is, I think, British, does an excellent job of using the American speech, from general, to Brooklyn-Italian, to a midwest semi-drawl. There is not a single person in the show like any other. Bone shows amazing versatility, and a good deal of stamina – he is sweating by the end of the first scene, a long shot of Bruce Bane being shot in the gut, and then chased through the city streets by an old enemy. The gags with the fruit vendor and the mango (“Where did the man go?” “Mango! Where’s the mango. Here you go!”), world’s largest cushion, or the hilarious run into a movie casting (“You’ve been shot. You’re being chased. Show me what you’ve got.”) grabbed the audience firmly in stitches. From then on we have a collage of jokes, retrospectives, but also tears and surprising twists and turns. Bone operates on cliches, images we’ve seen already, but in every single moment he is victorious and utterly convincing.

Bruce Bane, a hired hand (an euphemism for much darker profession), is indeed an anti-hero, as befits a masterpiece of noir. He is human, far from perfect, ravaged and living on the edge. In Bane 3 he tries to change his ways, only to realize that in his case it isn’t possible. I am not going to reveal how this show, and entire trilogy of course, ends. I will only say it is darker an ending than one might expect from a comedy.

Ben Roe sits in the corner of the stage, and provides an always fitting soundtrack on his green accoustic guitar. He changes the moods of his melodies accordingly. At one moment he provides a gripping crescendo at a fight scene. In another, he’s playing a delicate classical tune for the gala inside a posh restaurant. The moods of the show change, and the music reflects it superbly.

The show is minimalistic, there is no expense. Bone uses no props, making guns and phones with his hands, wearing only a coat – a hot burden for the hour of gymnastics, but he doesn’t seem to mind, except sweat glistening on his face sometimes. Roe, in his chair, focused on his guitar, tuning it silently between his gigs, wears a black fedora. Nothing else, no recordings, no videos, no flashes of light. Delightful simplicity, an occasion for Bone to masterfully depict everything with his body language, and  with a range of voices, chirps and grunts. He juggles between scenes and characters, instantly changing from an oppressed girl to the creepy goon. According to Bane’s Facebook page, the three shows star a whopping 79 characters. That’s what I call range!

I honestly can’t give this show enough praise. You just have to watch it yourself. It costs £10 for each installment of the three, and admittedly I only saw the last one, Bane 3. But what I saw and the number of highly positive comments this show gets in all the places I checked, convinces me it’s worth to see the whole bill. And you can even invite Mr. Bone and Mr. Roe to your own place for a performance and something extra after, just head on to the Bane page and click “book bane”.

But I’m not here to tell you to book them. Instead, I am telling you this: Bane is showing at the Fringe until the 28th of August. You can probably still get the tickets on the Fringe page, although the demand is high, and catch every one of the free. You can check which part plays when on the Bane page I linked above.

While I probably, sadly, won’t make it to another show before the shows finish their run (or maybe I will?), I am putting Bruce Bane in my blogroll. That’s how much I liked Bane 3. They are not going to rake much traffic from my measly blog, but that’s a little way of showing my appreciation and support for the project. Plus a tenner for the ticket.

Take care, and do care.