Joe Bone is Bruce Bane and many other people besides in a show featuring one man, one guitar and a host of pulp fiction characters, writes CHARLES HUTCHINSON .

MEET Bruce Bane, a hired hand who works the mean streets of pulp fiction. Going about his shadowy business down back alleys and eerie sidewalks, he shoots from the hip and asks questions later.

Inspired by hard-boiled detective stories, classic film noir and Hollywood blockbusters, he is the subject of Bane 1, 2 and 3, a series of genre parodies that work as single episodes or as a trilogy that can be seen in any order.

From Saturday to December 23, Bane, the creation of writer and performer Joe Bone, will be giving the Harrogate Studio Theatre a speak-easy vibe as je delves deep into the underbelly of a troubled American city.

Presented by Whitebone Productions, Bane 1, 2 and 3 feature Joe Bone playing every character, bringing his comic anti-hero to life without props, but with live guitar accompaniment from Ben Roe.

"I was contacted by Harrogate Theatre, whose pitch was that they wanted something different in the Studio for those who didn't want to go to the panto in the main house," says Joe.

He staged Bane 1 at Harrogate Theatre two years ago, since when the show has expanded into a series festooned with awards; now a graphic novel, DVD and cross-media platforms are in development too.

"We've capitalised on the success of the first show, which we took to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2009," he says.

"We returned there in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and by that time we had built up the three shows, but when we did the first premiere in Edinburgh."

Momentum was instant and across the three shows Joe plays 136 characters. To boot, he also has his place in the Guinness World Records for the most number of characters performed by a single actor in a theatre production.

"I set that at the Tristan Bates Theatre in Covent Garden in 2010," he recalls. The record still stands, by the way.

What drew Joe to pulp-fiction detective stories?

"I just grew up watching a lot of films, and when I was at university in Winchester, I did a paper on film noir," he says. "The course was film and drama, which couldn't be better for what I do now.

"One day I started talking like a film-noir character, which is basically the story of my life, as I'd come out of a film and ten minutes later I'd be talking just like the character I'd just seen."

From there, the character of Bane took shape.

"I created a character called Bruce Bane as it was one of those names that could occupy the world of pulp fiction; a name you feel you've heard before, so it evokes that genre before you even start, with thoughts of characters like Bruce Banner [The Hulk), Bruce Wayne [Batman] and Max Payne," says Joe.

Bruce Bane made his debut in brief bursts and then Joe teamed up with Ben Roe, his fellow former pupil at Cowes High School. "We were incredibly nervous making our debut at the Brighton Fringe Festival in May 2009, it got great reviews."

Ben's guitar is a key component in each show. "He sits to one side sound-tracking the whole performance live, setting the tone and providing the atmosphere," says Joe.

As for Joe's playing style, "I mime everything. There's no set, no props and no hat! I've never worn a hat but there is an overcoat, completely the wrong choice of costume for a one-man show with all those characters in the heat of a theatre, so the one thing the audience is guaranteed is sweat."

Imagine if Joe had to perform it in Brazil, but hold on, what's this, there really is a Brazilian version of Bane called Billdog, presented by one Gustavo Rodrigues.

"When I was doing the world record attempt, a chap came up afterwards and said he wanted to do Bane in Brazil. He could barely speak any English but we went out there to help him to put it together, and we've since back to perform our own show there this summer just before the World Cup."

Now Harrogate is giving you the chance to see the Bane of Joe's life, a distinctive character in a crowded genre.

"I think the fact that it's a one man, one musician show with no props and no set means the audience has to do the work, using their imagination in creating the world of Bane," he says. "It's more adrenaline-fuelled than the old movies, almost like throwing Philip Marlowe into an Eighties action movie, so Bane is more coarse, gruffer, tougher.

"I don't want to say we use avant-garde techniques; the show is very silly on one level, but we do use techniques to draw in the audience: the theatre of gesture from Jacques Lecoq. The key to the performance is the physicality – and the voice – which allows us to tour countries that don't speak English as their first language."

Bane has transferred to India, Singapore, Italy, Brazil and Australia and the next stop could be the United States.

"There isn't a Boon 4 in existence yet but we're looking to develop a show next year for the USA, which would involve us going to the Know Theatre in Cincinatti, Ohio," says Joe. "We've been invited to do potentially a six-week stretch out there. It would be a new show, still a Bane show, though I'm tempted to call it Bane Begins, not Bane 4."

Whitebone Productions presents Joe Bone's Bane, Harrogate Studio Theatre, Saturday to December 23, including Sundays; times vary. Box office: 01423 502116 or at harrogatetheatre.co.uk