Star Wars recreated by Canadian in incredible one-man show

How can one man stand on stage for an hour performing a cut-down version of the first three episodes of Star Wars, playing all the characters, making all the noises, and not end up a couple of light sabres short of an armoury?

The Canadian actor stormed the Edinburgh Festival with the show in 2006 and has so far performed it more than 4,000 times in 500 cities across four continents.

Charlie switches from being Luke Skywalker to the likes of Darth Vader at the speed of sound. But is it a job for a grown man?

“It’s a bizarre life,” he admits, in upbeat voice, speaking from his home in Vancouver.

“You certainly couldn’t have mapped out this trajectory.

“I studied theatre at university and this Star Wars idea was just something which was in my head for a time.”

The move from idea to stage performance emerged, the actor reveals, out of desperation.

“I appeared at a comedy club (in Toronto, 2002) and I tried it out as a twenty five minute piece. But I had no idea it would work, if people could keep up with the pace of the show, or that they would have so much knowledge of Star Wars.”

He adds, laughing; “You ask yourself; ‘Is the world really a bunch of geeks just wearing normal clothes?’ But you discover people really know Star Wars, even if they’re not geeky.”

There have been other successful theatre cut-down productions in the past. Had he been aware, for example of the Reduced Shakespeare Company?

“No, not at all. When I was in high school we did a fifteen minute Hamlet, but it had a big cast.

“It wasn’t until I began doing this show and I heard about Shakespeare and I read about them. What was similar is they were taking a huge amount of material and reducing it down.”

Had the high school experience planted a seed? “Maybe, but it wasn’t a solo venture.”

The Star Wars show is bare. No costumes. No sets. No props. Certainly no space ships. “I had no reference to this sort of thing working, other than stand-up comedy. It’s a ridiculous idea. But thankfully people not only got it, they found it funny.”

He adds; “What’s amazing is that it has sustained. I’ve been doing it for sixteen years now.”

Perhaps surprisingly the Stars War movie producers have had no complaints. There have been no law suits from George Lucas.

“They realise I’m not harming their intellectual property at all. I’m celebrating what they have created.”

The actor has more to his repertoire than the shrunken Star Wars trilogy. He also does a reduced Lord of the Rings, and more recently Batman, his take on the Christopher Nolan trilogy?

Does he ever wake up in the morning and wonder who he is?

“Sometimes,” he laughs. “I do wonder which voice I’m supposed to have in real life.”

But then actors are mildly schizophrenic, aren’t they. Did he always want to be a performer?

“I think it’s the only thing I can do,” he admits, grinning. “When I was a kid at school I was always being tossed out of class and sent to the principal’s office.

“But then a couple of teachers realised this behaviour could be channelled in a more positive way and I was encouraged to perform.”

The enlightenment of Canada’s teaching profession paid off.

“It meant I didn’t make the six o’clock news for all the wrong reasons,” he says, laughing.

“I’m glad I had teachers that made sure I wasn’t speaking to relatives from prison.”

Which parts of Star Wars (1-3) does he enjoy performing more?

“Well, you trust what works in the past. So I look forward to the final themes of the show, such as the rotten b****** of an emperor trying to win Luke Skywalker over.

“I try to punch it up, and try to be true to the performance of Ian McDiarmid, who played the Emperor. I’m not trying to mock it, or go too far.”

The laughs come from audience recognition.

“Yes, but also because the audience get to release tension. When they first come in they ask themselves, ‘Is this guy serious? Is he actually a Star Wars geek, or is having a laugh?”

Charlie is both. He is a member of the Star Wars fan club but he’s also laughing at the geeky part of himself, taking the mickey a little out of the fans like him.

“You have to be able to laugh at yourself. And if you can do that you can discover more where you belong in the world, rather than people who are isolated, or who can’t see themselves from an outward perspective.”

As a Star Wars authority, why does he think the films work so successfully?

“They appeal to the disenfranchised kid who lives on a farm and whines about his lot and then adventure suddenly comes to his front door in the form of these two droids.

“Did you know it’s only about two days from Luke leaving home to blowing up the Death Star and saving the universe?

“The films, you see, love to reveal the superhero in all of us. You don’t have to go to university or even to read a book but you can trust your feelings and draw on this power.

“I think these films appeal to people who just don’t know what to do.”

What does his family think of his adventures on stage?

“I think they’re mildly confused and amused,” he says, smiling, “but happy that my university degree actually counted for something and I’ve been able to be gainfully employed for so many years.”

Charlie, who is working on a cut down version of Jane Austen films (the Jennifer Ehle years) and Netflix Show Stranger Things adds; “But my parents could never have imagined that in allowing me to watch Star Wars way too many times it could have all turned out so positively.

“And I haven’t gone crazy yet, so it doesn’t look as if I will. After five years I questioned the whole thing. But now I realise I get to do what I like.”

And fly his own rocket ship all the way to the bank.

• One-Man Star Wars Trilogy, the SECC, October 7.