Where Woz Loz?
Hall for Cornwall, Truro
Woz Loz Loving it?
****
Expectations ran high when Truro’s Hall for Cornwall welcomed the show from a galaxy far, far away: Canada, in fact. With stormtroopers standing guard outside (yes, really) the audience arrive for One Man Star Wars – gracing the Cornish stage for just one night before continuing its tour.
Support act Danny Pensive fills the first half of the evening with a bizarre stand-up set consisting mostly of extracts from his own diary. His combination of non-jokes and deer-in-the-headlights delivery makes for fantastically funny material – albeit peculiar.
After the interval Charlie Ross, writer and performer of One Man Star Wars, finally joins us. Thoughts within the first two minutes are along the lines of “he can’t possibly be doing the whole thing like this!” – but he is. Ross sings, whistles, lunges and quotes his way through the original trilogy in just over an hour. He vocalises everything from the iconic theme music to R2D2, embodying even Princess Leia and various spacecraft: all with nothing accompanying him on stage but his microphone. He interjects dry remarks and commentary, such as mockery of the more obscure Star Wars plotlines (Luke: “Leia’s my sister?” Obi-Wan: “Well, she’s the only woman in the movie”), playing all the characters himself. It is these extras that make the show the original piece of writing that it is – and not just a fan’s recitation of the films.
Can anyone who has seen the original trilogy less than ten times a piece relate to this show? A show of hands near the start of the performance reveals that some members of the audience have never seen Star Wars. Suffice to say that Charlie Ross is a very good comedian as well a Star Wars buff. Much in stand-up style, he speaks to latecomers and people in the front row – when a father and young daughter go to the toilet he conspiratorially asks us applaud like mad when they return to make them think they’d missed the end. We love it when we know our night of performance was different to any other.
Charlie Ross’ production is massively entertaining. He would perhaps have to master Jedi mind tricking to persuade us to sit through more than the first three films in this format, but as it is the show is just the right length to allow his energy and stage presence to hold our attention throughout and we cannot help but love him.
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