[Review] Star Wars Trilogy in 30 Minutes
While it might have a in-built recognition factor due to the source material, The Star Wars Trilogy in Thirty minutes is an accomplished piece of light entertainment theatre this side of Kessel. The cast are having fun, the audience are in on the joke and enjoying every second, from the 20th Century Fox fanfare through to the final victory scenes. And given that the venue (Drummond St High School) isn’t exactly in the centre of town, to see this selling out (…the tickets!) is brilliant.
Almost every line is from Lucas’ scripts. There’s no ad-libbing or re-imagining of scenes (aprt from some required improvising of the episodic crawls), and every line has the correct inflection, tone and stress jsut right. And the whole thing sounds like it;s running at x1.2 of real speed as it all sounds just a bit manic. If it could be throttled back to 40 minutes, then maybe it would feel 100% right… but you’d loose the frentic sense of fun it delivers and the fast set changes.
Ah yes, the sets and props. Much like Ewan McGregor performed most of the current trilogy in a green room, the cast here work with some staging blocks and black curtains, letting the audience fill in the bl;anks in their mind. The props, on the other hand, are as inventive as an episode of MacGyver. You will believe that you saw a fleet of X-Wings on the stage, you will be astounded by the appearance of Darth Vader’s Tie Fighter, you will be anticipating the carbon freezing chamber scene… no they’re not school chairs, bread packing crates or someone playing musical statues. It really is Star Wars. In Thirty Minutes. And in this edition, Han fires first.
Who: Star Wars Trilogy in Thirty Minutes
Where: Drummond Street Theatre
When: 2300-2330, Until 20th August, (Matinees on 20th August as well).
