The energetic and effervescent Charlie Ross put on sixty madcapped minutes of Star Wars mayhem once a day for the duration of Celebration Europe and just like it says on the label, one man re-creaed the original Star Wars trilogy as a wonderful pastiche. Without the use of a single prop, sound effect or costume Charlie Ross entertained three full-houses as he mimicked, tumbled and whistled his way through A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.


For anyone who knows the Original Trilogy, his show borders on genius and even those viewers who attended Celebration Europe on the off-chance of a good day out the One Man Star Wars Show found themselves entertained from the get-go when he opened with the text crawl in a A New Hope: humming the Main Theme, Charlie angled his arms outward and walked backweards across the stage while singing "There are those words, where are they going? I can't read, they mo-o-ove to fast!"

Ross's skill as a mime and impresionist brought Princess Leia (hands cupped to either side of his head to portray buns), C-3PO (walking stiffly with arms held at an angle in front of him), Yoda (on his kness whilst pretending to use a cane), R2-D2 (stooped over and whistling into his mic), Han SOlo (swaggering with hand cupping his crotch), Darth Vader (hands at an angle above his head marking out the helmet) and Luke Skywalker (whining while fluffing his fringe/bangs up) to life. Perhaps the best of all is Jabba the Hutt, who received gouts of laughter from the captive audience every time he made an appearance.


As someone who spent much of their youth watching the movies and playing with the toys is obvious. Charlie's fervour for mythology of the Star Wars recaptures the experience and atmosphere of watching the Original Trilogy for the first time. Spending twenty minutes on each film all of the major scenes were re-enacted along with numerous the battles and duels, Ross performed all the music, explosions, laser blasts, roars of Chewbacca and R2-D2's twitters, the dialogue and even much of the visual effects all by himself.


Charlie's talent for comedy is exposed throughout the spectacle as he sends up George Lucas's characters and storyline. Given the constraints of having to fit three movies into certain situations are dropped in favour of given the key scenes the time they deserve, but in some cases Charlie has abridged the dialogue without loosing any of the required impact:

?Why didn?t you tell me Darth Vader was my father?? asks Luke Skywalker of Obi-Wan Kenobi on his return to Dagobah in Jedi.

?I forgot,? replies Kenobi.

Sadly Celebration Europe was the culmination of a month and a half long UK tour, so if you missed it you are going to have to wait until Charlie comes across again. Check out onemanstarwars.com for details on upcoming tours.

For more pictures check out the photo gallery that forms part of our Celebration Europe coverage.