One Man Lord of the Rings Queen's Theatre, Barnstaple Review: Liz Clough

WARNING: watching Charlie Ross's One Man Lord of the Rings is no substitute for either reading Tolkien's trilogy or watching the Oscar-winning films by Peter Jackson.

So it came as a bit of a surprise that, when asked, several members of the audience had done neither.

As Ross said, he had tried to make the title as self-explanatory as possible.

This hour-long show reduces the films (and the extended versions at that) into a frenetic exploration of Middle Earth. Playing every character, and singing the soundtrack where appropriate, Ross whirls the audience from the Shire to the slopes of Mount Doom with barely a pause for breath.

However, this was not a serious discussion on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Seeing a man in a boiler suit spinning round on the floor pretending to be both Gandalf and Saruman having a fight was hilarious, and the ad-lib of having Gollum bless a member of the audience who sneezed was a lovely moment.

Having previously visited Barnstaple with his One Man Star Wars show, and following it up with One Man Lord of the Rings, the next time Charlie Ross visits, I would like to make a personal request it is with his version of Bruce Willis's original Die Hard movies. Yippie-kay-yay indeed.