Review: One Man Star Wars Trilogy at Theatre Severn

One Man Star Wars Trilogy

Theatre Severn

Shrewsbury

It was geek nirvana in Shrewsbury, as Canadian Charlie Ross brought the Star Wars story from a galaxy far, far away into the Walker Theatre.

Imperial Storm Troopers guarded the lobby ahead of Saturday night's performance, even urging me to "move along, move along" as I queued to get in.

Ross has managed to condense the three films from the original Star Wars trilogy into a fun-packed, high energy, hour-long show where not only does he rattle off word-perfect dialogue, he also does the sound effects AND the music.

Be warned, if you're not a fan of Star Wars this isn't the night out you're looking for. A quick audience poll at the end of act one (A New Hope) revealed that at least one person had never seen the films.

"Bet you're getting a lot out of this," quipped Ross. "I do try to make it as clear as possible in the title what this show is about."

Ross said he was bothered this might be the audience member's introduction to Star Wars. "As these guys will tell you, this is about as far from Star Wars as it's possible to get."

But that's not true. If you know the films, you will transported on a wave of familiarity, but kept in often side-splitting laughter from either out-and-out gags or subtle in-jokes.

There is even room for him to pop in some local references. Recreating the scene before Luke meets Yoda, he quotes: "What are we doing here?" Before adding: "In Shrewsbury?"

He goes on: "It's like something out of a dream. With very limited parking."

Ross has done another one man show in Lord of the Rings "which is essentially the same story" and has promised to bring it to Shrewsbury. I hope he meant it. The Force is strong in this one.

By David Burrows