Melbourne Fringe: The Heart Awakens (2)

Everyone knows that Rob Lloyd is a fan of Doctor Who, but his long-term relationship with that show is pre-dated by his first love, Star Wars. The Heart Awakens is a love letter to that relationship, as rocky as it sometimes got.

This show is the third part of Rob Lloyd’s Obsession Trilogy, which started with A Study in Scarlet and continued with the internationally renowned Who, Me. This is a perfect ending to the series, with barely an ewok in sight. We get to know Rob from childhood through high school, university to when he was working at the Comics Lounge on the same stage as “Chopper” Read.

It’s not that Star Wars was his only childhood love; he’d already fallen for Adam West’s Batman, The Muppets, the Transformers and Ghostbusters. And eventually he left Star Wars for He-Man, but people grow apart, you know?

This is a sweet show about the things we love; even if they tarnish over time, they are still special to us. No matter how much they change, we can still remember them fondly the way they used to be. Lloyd is funny and touching and his co-star, Jennifer Speirs, does a really great job embodying the loves of Rob’s life.

Hopefully, one day soon, Rob will stage all his trilogy shows so we can binge watch them. That’s the done thing with obsessions these days.