Review – Bane

Joe Bone plays Bruce Bane, a hard-boiled detective working outside the law to bring his righteous fury on the criminal underworld. His character is a parody of the crime-action archetype: Sam Spade, James Bond and John McClane thrown in a blender and exaggerated beyond proportion. Which, of course, is nothing new: you’ve seen it all before with Austin Powers, Ace Ventura and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? What you want to know is whether Joe Bone can deliver a fresh and interesting deconstruction of the action-noir genre.

Unfortunately, Bane is a bit weak on ingenuity. At times the show hilariously subverts your expectations with clever lines and unexpected turns, but most of the gags are set up a little too obviously. It also has some problems with tone. At times Bane is a fun showcase of over-the-top villains and silly references, but then there are scenes contrived to dispose of women in the most shocking manner possible. It jars, a lot, and the show might have been more enjoyable if it was tighter in scope.

The strongest aspect of Bane, though, is in the performance. Aside from Ben Roe’s guitar, which makes up the soundtrack, Joe Bone does all the sound effects himself: from guns and explosions to telephones and motorcycles. He populates his stage with a variety of colourful personalities, and executes physically intensive action scenes wearing an overcoat in the middle of Summer. Bane could be a little more introspective with its use of violence and stereotypes, but what it does well it does very, very well.