J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is a story of brotherhood, one of men traveling and fighting together to save Middle Earth. Peter Jackson’s films are famous, not only for their epic nature and New Zealand landscapes, but also for the camaraderie between both the actors and the characters they created during the long shoot in which all three films were shot back-to-back in just a few years.

So why, then, given the blatantly obvious theme of a “fellowship,” would Tim McGovern, a sophomore theater major, take it upon himself to play all of the characters in a one man Lord of the Rings show? He’s taking on hobbits, elves, men and dwarves, and the truth is his versatility and spot-on impressions actually work.

“Throughout all of high school I would watch way too much Lord of the Rings,” McGovern said. “Then after a while I would get really good at doing the impressions…I had like encyclopedic knowledge of just the movies.”

McGovern, who is also involved with NSTV and Titanic Players, said he got the idea to undertake creating a one-man show that would cover the trilogy after seeing a one-man Star Wars show on Broadway. “I thought to myself, this would be the perfect thing to do, the perfect way to justify all these hours lost of my high school life,” he said.

Tim McGovern is a man of many men.
Photo by the author.

After approaching Vertigo, which produces student-written shows on campus, with the idea, McGovern began working on the actual adaptation by picking out everything he thought should be included in the performance. Everything he liked, it turned out, ended up being far too much. His solution? “I actually stole one of the [blue] test booklets and I just used that as the limit. I had to fill up an entire test booklet, but no more, no less,” McGovern said. “It’s really tough to do because you fall in love with everything and then you have to cut it down to its bare essentials.” The final show should clock in at just about one hour, a stunning cut from the nine-plus hours of the original theatrical films.

Abridging the script to just central quotes and events, McGovern said another struggle was working to distinguish each character on stage. Transitioning between Frodo’s soft voice to Gandalf’s booming speeches, he relies on hand motions and near impeccable impressions to keep audiences conscious of just who is speaking.

McGovern, who says his favorite character to portray is Gandalf, hopes that the show will attract both Tolkien fans and those who are not as familiar with the story. He did note, however, that the show was written to be accessible to people who had seen the films at least once. McGovern’s schizophrenic performance will impress audiences with his ability to transform in a manner of seconds, while maintaining comedic aspects as well.

He hopes that people’s inner geeks will draw people to the performance. “The fact is that, although people profess not to be nerds, everybody’s a nerd in some way, shape or form and I feel like Lord of the Rings definitely is one of the most acceptable forms of being a nerd,” he said.

And what does McGovern think about the people who may challenge his knowledge of Middle Earth with trivia after the show? “Bring ‘em on. Bring ‘em on is what I say,” he said.