Hype, Anger And A Whole Lot Of Love: We Need To Talk About ‘Harry Potter And The Cursed Child’
Here's a (spoiler-free) space to reflect.
Don’t worry, this post doesn’t contain any spoilers for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
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A few months back, a friend of a friend offered my partner and I tickets to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I said no.
Let me be clear: the tickets were exorbitantly expensive, scheduling at the time meant I couldn’t attend, and my broomstick was being repaired at the time. But still, it felt like I was betraying Harry and Hermione and Ron and the others; they were about to be thrust back into the spotlight (quite literally) and I wouldn’t be there to witness it. I’d been there for all of their other adventures, and now I was going to be sitting across the other side of the world, blind to the wonder. The wonder, dammit!
When J.K. Rowling announced that she, playwright Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany were planning to release the story of the sprawling two-part play, I almost peed. I was elated! We all were! Many still are! Yesterday, on Harry Potter’s birthday, fans around the world got the chance to queue up once more as bookstores opened, and snatch up a fresh copy of a new Harry Potter book. Well, script.
Like many fans, I powered through the thing yesterday afternoon in a single sitting. But I certainly don’t want to kill that all-important wonder for anyone who didn’t. Here’s a totally spoiler-free breakdown of the book (as well as the issues it’s raised).
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Did We Actually Need This Book?
My initial concern was that The Cursed Child was only based on a story by Rowling, and written by playwrights. I felt in some way that this would lead to a watered-down, bastardised version of a Potter story — if I was a Slytherin, I’d have referred to this as a mudblood, and demanded a work of pureblood literary pedigree. But then I realised I was approaching it all wrong; this was a collaboration. And I’m now convinced that this collaborative effort is why the story is able to be so satisfyingly familiar while still feeling fresh.
If you’ve read a script before, you will however know that you often have to work your imagination a lot harder than with a novel or a film. Mercifully, the stage directions here are evocative as hell, and spell out many of the more subtle moments between characters, but often you’ll find yourself having to really work your imagination to visualise what’s happening. I had the actors in my head, excitedly throwing their lines at each other rapid-fire (which likely means I’d make a terrible director). I recommend either checking out the photos of the new cast, or re-watching the epilogue (from which the story is immediately based) before reading.
As my partner put it, we open at the close (and this isn’t a bad thing). The epilogue never sat well with me. It always felt like the kind of extended universe bollocks that fans would throw in to assure themselves their beloved characters turned out alright in the end. I actually thought (odd makeup aside) that the epilogue in the film version was more understated, and, frankly, better, but I still didn’t care for it.
The Cursed Child, in one fell swoop, not only justifies the existence of the epilogue, but makes it essential. In spite of the fact that reading seven novels and then transitioning to a script might be a jarring adjustment to make, this might rank up with my favourite instalments in the series.
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The Story Itself
The Cursed Child is ultimately a story about Harry and his son, Albus Severus Potter. Albus (he prefers Al) swiftly discovers upon enrolling at the fabled Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that living up to a legacy can be a bastard. He also meets up with the arguable lead of the story, and my new favourite character in the Potterverse: Scorpius Malfoy.
Scorpius is such a goddamned treat. I won’t spoil any of the specifics, but it’s fantastic knowing so much about Draco, and then seeing how his son turned out. His motivations are complex, his dialogue sparkles, and I challenge you not to fall in love with the guy. He’s fascinating to read (and, presumably, to watch) and he provides a superb foil to Albus.
We also get to see what Harry, Hermione and Ron are up to. The Cursed Child thrusts us very quickly into the world we’ve been unjustly deprived of all these years (apart from occasionally wonderful smatterings of new lore on J.K. Rowling’s fan site, Pottermore). We’re taken on an action-packed drama with all the requisite Potter moments you’ve been missing, but because this is a considered, albeit biblically ambitious piece of theatre — it features exciting set-pieces in which cast are flung into the air and everyday objects come to life onstage when angered — we’re given some stunning tracts of character development, not least of which involve the ongoing and evolving relationships of original characters.
What did fame do to Harry, and what did that, in turn, do to his son? What happens when these two clash? Ron and Hermione get some great moments, in which we see what decades of mundanity in the wake of a war do to a relationship. Draco and Harry have some meaty scenes which expand upon their Hogwarts feuds too. They both work in the Ministry of Magic, and now their sons are inextricably linked, so witnessing them being forced to interact under less than ideal circumstances as adults is fascinating and, at times, touching.
Through all this, there are countless moments of emotional friction, all of which hit home. We have characters both old and new showing immense compassion, depth and complexity. There’s gallows humour, plot twists, and some scenes that had me crying onto the book. Fun fact: salty tears warp paper very, very easily.
The Cursed Child isn’t as long as a Harry Potter novel, which makes the relatively quick reading time feel a little odd (I finished in three-and-a-half hours). But the superb story is satisfying in its own right — it does justice to the legacy of Harry Potter, just in a new, strange format. I can’t wait to read it again.
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The Response So Far
There are a litany of people online posting massive spoilers, then lamenting the quality of the story based solely on these plot points. This feels spectacularly unfair. It’s like finding out Sirius dies in The Order of the Phoenix, then hitting the internet to lambast the book without considering the broader context of what his death meant. Some are also complaining that specific reveals come out of nowhere, or are too predictable. Admittedly I did pick a plot twist from miles away early in Part One, but I was so giddy with wonderment that I forgot about it until the reveal, at which point I felt very clever and pleased with myself.
The original books are rife with moments like this, but they weren’t subject to this degree of post-series scrutiny. And as for the claims this feels too different, or too fan-servicey… it’s a play, not a book, so of course it feels different.
Who else is re-reading all the Harry Potter books right now to try and cleanse their brain of the #CursedChild ? pic.twitter.com/NT3Exlt39Q
— Megan Willett (@MegaWillz) July 31, 2016
If you were reading a script for one of the Potter films, with earnest line after earnest line stamped onto the page (and if you read said lines without imbuing them with the requisite emotion that actors or pages of expository text would normally provide) of course you’d feel less of an impact. And who else would this be written for, but the fans?
So yes, you should read it. Pour yourself a glass of something good, sit by a fireplace, and open your brain to the sheer magic of this most welcome return to (and fitting end to) the Harry Potter saga. I don’t think there’s any wrong way to experience this story; having read it, I’m now aching to see the production, and if I’d seen it onstage, I bet I’d yearn to curl up once again with a Potter book in my hands. It’s up to you how you experience this, be it in script format, or seeing it live. (God, I want to see it live).
If you can’t afford tickets, maybe you can somehow instead astrally project yourself into the minds of ticketholders. In the world of Harry Potter this would be referred to as Occlumency. But you already knew that.
Get reading, wizards and witches, you’re in for a real treat.
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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is in bookstores now.
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Paul Verhoeven is host of Steam Punks on ABC3, and host of the weekly gaming podcast 28 Plays Later. He tweets from @PaulVerhoeven.