The Lord of The Rings is the world’s best-known and relevant fantasy franchise, mostly due to the incredible work of J.R.R. Tolkien, but also because the Peter Jackson movies are so memorable and beloved. The dense fantasy world-building makes it an easy (yet delightful) target for parody, which brings us to Parody of The Ring, one of the many shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that honors this world-class fantasy franchise.
The show opens with two movie buffs who are also theatre ushers, Jackson and Peter, who are about to host a Lord of The Rings marathon movie night in order to save their local theatre. As the audience finds their seats, we’re informed by the ushers that the show will start soon, and that there will be a tombola at the end. Of course, as it’s a Middle Earth movie marathon, there are lots of bits of movie memorabilia knocking about, as part of the whole affair. And then, disaster! The (not real) movie projector has exploded in a hilariously appropriate fashion, and now to save the theatre, Peter, Jackson, and a whole host of random props will have to act out all three movies.
The result is a quite fun re-enactment of the movie, with silly bits thrown in to make the whole thing a bit more coherent. There’s a fair bit of audience participation, so sit at the front if you ever wanted to be called Legolas. This is a chaotic show, very much a Lord of The Rings themed panto rather than an attempt to skewer the movies.
There’s a valiant attempt at doing the entire trilogy, because that’s the narrative of the show. It primarily focuses on the first movie, using the other two for a few throw-away gags and some genuinely heartwarming moments between Jackson and Peter as Sam and Frodo. There’s also a number of terrible Ian McKellan impersonations, one of which uses a mop for Gandalf’s beard.
The performances are strong and the staging is very good. For a show with just two performers (and a lot of props, it does a lot with very little.
Fabulous Frodo Fun For Family and Fans.
You can book tickets for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe run here, and find more about future shows here.
