Hello it's tuesday, it is Reviewsday
Tuesday, and today I am going to review
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the play,
which I saw on Sunday, 6th November,
and also, a little bit, the script, which I
read when it was first released a few
months ago, and also I reread it
yesterday when the play was still fresh
in my mind. First, a note about spoilers:
as usual, with my reviews, I'm going to
try and avoid spoilers as much as
possible, mainly through just being
frustratingly vague. if I do mention
anything which is a bit spoilery, or just
that I feel would be best experienced as
a surprise in the theatre, I will
highlight it, so that you can skip it if
you would like to. So you should be okay,
but if you are going to see the show or
you are hoping to see the show, and you
want to experience it fresh with no
prior knowledge, then maybe don't watch
this video. So review! Harry Potter and the
Cursed Child is currently on at the Palace
Theatre in london. The show is in two
parts. Part One is two hours 40 minutes
with a twenty minute interval. Part two is five
minutes shorter. It begins 19 years after
the events of Deathly Hallows. In fact it
begins in the epilogue of Deathly
Hallows. Harry and Ginny, with their
daughter, Lily, are seeing off their
sons, James and Albus, to Hogwarts. It is
Albus's first year. They are on platform nine
and three-quarters. Ron and Hermione are
also seeing off their daughter, Rose, for
her first year. And Draco Malfoy is also
there, with his wife Astoria, and they
are seen off their son, Scorpius, for his
first year. Albus and Scorpius meet on the
train and the two become friends. And
then, slight spoiler here so skip ahead
by five seconds if you want to miss it,
Albus is sorted into Slytherin. End of
spoiler. So we cover their first three
years at Hogwarts pretty quickly. It's
very well done, how they do this. And most
of the action takes place in Albus and
Scorpius's fourth year I think. The play
is concerned with their friendship, they
want to prove themselves, Albus
especially, so events
occur. And the play is also about the
relationship between fathers and sons,
Harry and Albus's especially, their
relationship is quite strained. And Draco
and Scorpius' also. And that's about as
far as I'm going to go with the plot.
So firstly, I loved this play. It is very
spectacular. It's long but it doesn't
feel it,
your mind doesn't wander, or mine didn't
anyway. And this is kind of an annoying
word to use, but it's magical. There are a
lot of illusions, a lot of really
impressive stuff where you are like 'how did
they do that?' It's a very entertaining show to
watch, and I feel like a lot of its
success is due to that, how well the show
is brought to life on stage. I loved the
scene changes, the scene changes are part
of the show. I really like how they
conveyed changes in time and place. It's
also a show that works extremely well with
an audience. An invested, interested
audience, who know about the world of
Harry Potter. There are a lot of 'oooh's
and 'aaaah's at significant revelations
which I loved. Also, the theatre kind of
becomes part of the world of the show,
which I enjoyed. You'll know what I mean if
you've read the script, or if you've
seen the show. And it's funny because
when I read the script I had some issues
with the plot, I felt like there were characters
acting in ways which felt out of
character, a few plot leaps, a few clunky
bits in dialogue, odd choices, stuff like that,
but I am so happy that when watching it
on stage, all of that stuff kind of
floated away. Some of it is down to being
immersed in the experience of watching
that world come to life on stage, but so
much of its success has to go to the
cast, who were so believable as their
characters, they made their actions
understandable, they made the dialogue
sound real.
I mean it sounds obvious that the
play is better staged than read, but I feel
like this show is an extremely good
example of a script coming to life on
stage. So amazing job, cast! Especially
Jamie Parker as Harry, I was a fan of his before.
Paul Thornley as Ron. I didn't see Noma Dumezweni
as Hermione but i'm pretty
certain that she would be amazing
because I've seen her in stuff before
and she was amazing, but Nicola Alexis
was great as Hermione. Alex Price as
Draco, I really liked where Draco
went in this play. And especially, I think
that's my second 'especially' so I guess
we're at especially squared, Sam Clemmet as
Albus and Anthony Boyle as Scorpius. Because
a lot of the weight of the show is on
them specifically. Also, a note about
Scorpius: when reading the play he was my
favourite character by far, and when
seeing the play, even more so.
Boyle was so good, and how he said every
line was a surprise.
I mean Scorpius is now one of my
favourite Harry Potter characters, which
is a surprise considering how long ago
the books were out. It goes: Fred and George,
Scorpius, Ginny, Luna. I mean you know what
I'm like about fictional characters, so you
know this is a big week for me.
Yeah, I enjoyed this play a lot. If you
have seen it I would love to know
what you thought of it. Also, if you
read the script as well do you feel as I
do or are you just thinking 'what is she
rabbiting on about?' Oh, also, if you have
read the script and are planning on
seeing the show, or you are planning on
seeing the show and are thinking of
reading the script, then I would
recommend not reading the script
immediately before seeing the show; leave
a bit of a gap. Because I left a bit of a
gap and I had forgotten sufficient
amounts of the plot to still be surprised
by the show, which i think is best. If you
want to see the show and can't then I'm
sorry, that's really rubbish. The story
works so well on the stage, but
annoyingly the stage is the place where
the least people can see it. I mean, even
if you're in London it is not particularly
helpful because they sold out so quickly.
Hopefully the show will come to other
places where more people can see it.
I think that's the plan. I have to say, I
don't think the story would work very
well as a novel or as a film. Things
which are amazing and exciting and
dramatic on stage are not so much in
text form or on-screen. Also,I''m going to
delve into mild spoilers again so if you
want to avoid them go to this time code.
The play revisits scenes from the past,
through dreams and other ways, so portraying
them in a novel or film would be tricky
because they've already been in this
form. It would be repetitive and
confusing, a bit difficult to orchestrate,
i imagine. It works better as it's a
different medium. One thing I'd be a
massive fan of, though, is them going down the
filmed theatre route. There's a lot of
debate around it, but it's very popular at the
minute.
The National Theatre does it, the Globe
does it. Billy Elliot did it. I think
Billy Elliot is a fantastic example of a
big, long running show being filmed
successfully. It can't recreate the
experience, but it does give a better
idea of the experience, and of the story,
than the script does. So I would love it
if that happened. And I would especially
love it if it happened when the original
cast is still there, because they're
amazing and a lot of the show's success
in years to come is going to be down to
the choices that they have made in the
show now. Just my thoughts, and I don't
know much about these things. That would
be the dream. I'm getting distracted.
I will give Harry Potter and the Cursed
Child, the play, 4.7 out 5. I'll give the
play script slightly less than that
because although it is excellent to have
access to the story if you can't see it on
stage, it's just not as good here. Which is
inconvenient, and also
not the best note to end on, Mouse.
The play was great, I really enjoyed it,
it's wonderful to be back in the
Wizarding World. Scorpius is awesome,
isn't it fantastic that after all these years
we're still talking about Harry Potter?
I think that's where I should end. I hope you
have a fantastic couple of days, and I
will see you later on in the week.