Charles Ross’s One Man Star Wars is a breathtaking, mind boggling homage to what is obviously his favourite movie trilogy. He claims to have seen it over 400 times, and it shows. As the title suggests it is an extremely fast paced telling of the original Star Wars Trilogy – episodes IV to VI – by one man. With no props or costumes, he uses brilliantly executed, yet often very simple mime to represent characters, space ships, creatures, machinery and so on. Lighting also gives him a big helping hand, with a low red spot on Darth Vader and a wash of green to represent the swamp where Luke trains with Yoda.
Interestingly there is no introduction to the show by Charles or any sign off afterwards. He simply walks on stage and starts humming the 20th Century Fox theme followed by “Once Upon A Time in a Galaxy Far, Far Away” and then the Star Wars theme. He does A New Hope in an amazing half an hour then fits the other two films into the other half. What impressed me more than the amazing impersonations of all the characters and picking out all the most salient bits to portray the films was his continual flawless use of the film score in every scene. You knew Darth Vader was entering, or about to enter, because he was humming Darth’s dastardly theme. He is also talented at making sound effects, the whoozsh of a light sabre, the bleeps of R2D2 and the roar of the Wookie.
Although this is a lovingly faithful telling of the Star Wars Trilogy, Charles does have a little geeky fun with it. He pointed out that there are little continuity discrepancies, that Luke’s hair in the first film is a long 70s style and when Luke starts explaining to Leia how they are siblings, he stops, then says “Why don’t you just see Episode III – its out on DVD”
This show is the ultimate tribute to every geek who ever quoted dialogue of their favourite sci-fi film at you. Your appreciation of his amazing performance will depend on how familiar you are with the films. Luckily I recently sat through a Star Wars marathon of all six films and was primed to enjoy every minute of Charles’ awe inspiring show. It’s sadly a very short run, so get into hyper drive make sure you see One Man Star Wars, and don’t forget to take any young fans you might know with you!
“One Man Star Wars” ends it’s run on Sat 7th of April. Look at “One Man Star Wars”:http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/season/2007/show/327/ for booking details.