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One Man Star Wars Trilogy

By Tristan Egarr | 7 Jul, 2008

Charles Ross tours the globe as the official Star Wars one-man show, performing all three original Star Wars films in one hour with no sets, props, costumes or assistance (apart from his trusty glass of water), and at the end of May he touched down to Soundings Theatre, Te Papa. Surprisingly, Ross is not a Star Wars fanatic, and indeed he finds such fanatics a trifle worrying. However, he did live on a remote Canadian farm for three years, where his family had no TV reception and only two complete videos – The Blue Lagoon and Star Wars. This left young Charles with a deeply felt love for Brooke Shields, and an intricate knowledge of every shot in Star Wars, which he eventually turned into a twenty minute show. When George Lucas realised how awesome Ross’ version of his world was, the show was extended to encompass the entire trilogy.

Ross is brilliant at acting out simple motions to describe different characters – hands to ears for Princess Leia’s hair, hands sweeping from crotch to indicate someone listening to Darth Vadar (and thus pissing their pants). He clearly thinks that Luke Skywalker is a whinging little bitch while Yoda is a senile bad-ass, and takes great delight in adding “schwing” to Han and Luke’s comments whenever they talk to Leia. He perhaps overdoes the soundtrack a little bit (constantly humming the theme to each scene as he acts it out), but that’s my only complaint.

One Man Star Wars Trilogy
By Charles Ross
At Soundings
May 20 - 26

What’s Hot

Downstage has the Strike Percussion guys. While not strictly theatre, they’re probably a lot of fun. But if theatre’s what you’re after, Metamorphosis opens this week at Bats and is helmed by some of Wellington’s most respected veteran performers. Alternatively, check out some of the work by Vic’s Theatre Honours students. Ralph Upton has helmed a devised work titled 1001 Things You Must Do Before You Die, while Eleanor Bishop has been rehearsing scenes from Sarah Kane’s Cleansed. You can catch them Thursday 10 July at 2:30pm, and Friday 11 – Saturday 12 July at 7:30pm at Studio 77, with a discussion session afterwards.