3 tales of lands away,
3
tales of friendship,
3
tales of life and death
and
one man to tell them
Peter
Jackson totally broke the mould when he took on the monumental task of bringing
to life Middle Earth and Tolkien's Lord of The Rings trilogy. Filmed in
New Zealand, costing millions and cast with thousands, it quickly became THE
viewing for anyone remotely keen to escape to The Shire and beyond. There
was one person, however, who saw LOTR and instead of being blown away by the
scale and majesty thought - "I can do that"
Enter Charlie Ross, Canadian actor, writing, painter
of dreams and creator of nightmares (ok, I added the last two bits) who, fresh
from his Lucas-inspired tour of One Man Star Wars, embarked on re-writing the
greatest story ever told (as voted for by Tolkien Weekly)
into an hour and a half solo spectacular. For this show, Charlie does it all,
voices, acting, sound effects, background music and for anyone who has seen the
Jackson movies, it is instantly recognisable whilst at the same time
unique. With regular knowing nods to the audience and geeky
in-jokes, Charlie uses the fact that the movies are so well known to
add more topical references and play on the cast members' own
idiosyncrasies - previous films they have starred in, Legolas' obsession
with his hair, Saruman's ultra deep voice, unrequited Hobbit love ?? etc.
With nothing
but a microphone, Charlie Ross re-creates the vast lands, claustrophobic
dungeons, weyrs of dragons, huge armies and of course, those touching, telling
moments between 'friends'.
The audience
last night, tho small, were all very keen LOTR fans, well, I say all but, as
Charlie conducted a very brief poll at the start to see who has watched the
DVDs, extras, director extras etc, there were a few 'yeas' to the question
"Has anyone here NOT seen or read LOTR" - just what they would make
of the show was open to debate, but actually, whilst some of the in-jokes would
have been lost on them, there was no denying the skill, talent and energy on
stage. For those who know and love it, Charlie's show is like the missing
extra that would make the ultimate box set to end all box sets.
For those
Tolkien and Lord of the Rings Fans who feel they have seen everything they can
about the story to end all stories, I urge you to go see Charlie Ross's One Man
version - it is one of the funniest and entertaining shows I've seen at
Darlington all year. I just wish he had brought this out on DVD, it
would have saved me the 15 hours of pre-show preparation watching the extended
directors cut box set and learning the Silmarillion.
One Man Lord
of the Rings is on tour for the next few weeks - check out the website www.onemanlotr.com
EXTRA
EXTRA - For those who loved Charlie's LOTR, he is back in the North East on the
13th October at Whitley Bay Playhouse doing his One Man Star Wars show
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