One Man Lord of the Rings

Underbelly Pasture
16-22 August, 20.50

Made famous by his One Man Star Wars Trilogy, Charles Ross is now touring in his latest incarnation, the One Man Lord Of The Rings. If you are a diehard fan of Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings you will, in all probability, have booked your tickets for this show. However, this is not a good place to start if you haven’t already read the books or, more importantly, viewed on more than one occasion the Special Extended Edition DVDs of Peter Jackson’s film trilogy.

The compression of over 10 hours of film and a cast of thousands into a one man one hour show is ambitious and calls for a frenetic, fast paced, performance with much grunting, jumping and waving of arms.

The majority of the audience clearly loved every moment, with applause erupting at the introduction of each new character and laughter bursting out at every ‘in crowd’ joke, nevertheless there seemed many, myself included, that were quite baffled or indifferent to its charms. Ultimately it was a show that polarised audience opinion, and you will instinctively know in which camp you belong.

– Margaret Scott