Bane visits the Community Centre

Bruce Bane came to the Community Centre last night, an experience that few in the audience will forget. Bruce was a fast-talking, quick-shooting, thoroughly amoral private eye/ hit man who roamed the streets of a fictitious American town spreading mayhem wherever he went.
Along with Bruce Bane and his guitarist sidekick came 39 other characters who inhabited this murky cartoon-like world. All played with breath-taking energy and split second timing by an actor of great vocal and physical range, Joe Bone.

Joe, Ben Roe and Georgia Newman from Whitebone Productions are veterans of rural touring and travel light. With no set but a chair for guitarist Ben, no lights and no costumes they were soon ready to start. What followed was two hours (with a brief interval) of a stunning expression of individual acting talent, a monologue with precise actions as characters changed effortlessly to propel the story forward. All this accompanied by Ben's haunting and atmospheric music.

It is probably fair to say that the story, set in the bleak, cartoonish landscape of a 'private eye', did not suit everyone. The casual violence of the hero seemed extreme. There was less comedy than anticipated and some felt that more music would have added greatly to the piece. Yet the pace, energy and force of the narrative carried most of the audience along and with some complaining that, despite the interval, they almost felt as exhausted at the end as the actor surely must have been!

Joe and Ben have developed Bane stories 3 and 4 where Bruce Bane develops a conscience and looks back at the meaning of his life. All pieces have been shown in venues at festivals throughout the world.

Sue Hardacre, promoter for the Community Centre, explained "After the success we have had with some rather more conventional pieces we decided to go for something quite unusual this time. Cheshire Rural Touring Arts, by definition, seeks to present theatre that both entertains and challenges. Large scale productions are rare and they specialise in finding small companies who bring different perspectives and new ideas to the traditional way of telling stories. I hope that Tarvin residents will welcome this approach and continue to support the Community Centre next season."

The next CRTA production is specifically for 3-6 year olds. Called Boxy and Sticky it is on Monday June 27th at 4.00pm and tickets will be available soon. The promoter can guarantee that the audience is unlikely to leave exhausted!

Ed: Photograph shows Joe Bones, alias Bruce Bane, on the right, with Ben Roe, guitarist on the left.