Han (and everyone else) Solo Charles Ross’s One-Man Star Wars Trilogy BY SALLY CRAGIN

Imagine a prairie farmhouse far, far away in western Canada, not so long ago. A small boy awakens. He used to live in the suburbs with lots of friends nearby, but not anymore. He pads to the television set and inserts his favorite tape in the slot. Dah-dah-DAHHHHH! Da-da-da-DAH-DAHHHHH!!! A whoosh of credits and then the familiar blocky typography as STAR WARS glides up the screen and another day begins.

Fast-forward a couple of decades. Now 31, writer/performer Charles Ross has spent much of the past five years touring in his solo show The One-Man Star Wars Trilogy, which comes to the Wilbur Theatre this Tuesday. In the one-hour piece, Ross re-creates the characters, situations, sound effects, and music of the first three films. He’s Luke, Han, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, R2-D2, C-3PO, Darth Vader, and Obi-Wan Kenobi all wrapped into one.

It’s an affectionate homage from a self-styled "hardcore dorky fan" but also a performance that has garnered laudatory reviews across the continent and enjoyed a successful sojourn Off Broadway this past summer. "I feel it’s almost like a dance piece because it has a certain choreography built in for the show to work at such a breakneck speed," the actor explains over the phone from New York.

During his childhood, he estimates, he watched the first movie some 400 times. ("It became background noise.") But his fandom goes several steps — well, light years — beyond what you might expect. "I’m capitalizing on something that’s already been established. I can’t help but feel like a little bit of a parasite, because there is already a fan base. You love these characters for what they are."

But Ross is not just a Star Wars sponger; his work has won the approval of the Creator — George Lucas, that is. Rather than shutting down the project with a lightsaber legal swipe, LucasFilms commissioned Ross to perform at Celebration III, the officially sanctioned Star Wars Convention that was tied to the release of Revenge of the Sith last spring.

And Star Wars is not Ross’s only obsession — he has a Tolkien tour de force: The One-Man Lord of the Rings. "I’ve always had this energy inside myself that I’ve wanted to bring to a character that was [already] written. With one-person shows, you display the best quality you have within yourself." That’s a force that’s been with him for a long time.

THE ONE-MAN STAR WARS TRILOGY | Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St, Boston | November 8-13 | $38.50 | Opera House or Colonial Theatre box office or 617.931.ARTS or www.broadwayacrossamerica.com