Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two by J K Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany - review

The wizarding juggernaut just keeps on Rowling, says Henry Hitchings
Next generation: Anthony Boyle as Scorpius Malfoy (left) and Sam Clemmett as Albus Potter in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Manuel Harlan
Henry Hitchings5 August 2016

The latest instalment of Harry Potter’s adventures formally opened a few days ago — a big-hearted stage spectacle performed in two parts and spanning more than five hours. Theatre critics have greeted the shows with superlatives but for the many Potterheads who can’t make it to the West End, at least not yet, the 330-page script will have to suffice.

Some admirers of J K Rowling’s novels have dismissed The Cursed Child as “fan fiction” on the grounds that it’s written by playwright Jack Thorne — albeit in close collaboration with Rowling as well as the theatre production’s director John Tiffany. These hardcore devotees have complained that the canon of Harry Potter stories is complete and needs no elaboration. What others see as a blissful re-immersion in the books’ thrills, they regard as a dubious exercise in nostalgia or the overextension of a mighty franchise.

Anyone who has caught a glimpse of the publicity will have gathered that Rowling’s original trio of youthful wizards are now grown-up. The story resumes where the epilogue to the last of the seven novels left off, nearly 20 years on from the main action. Harry is now a tired functionary at the Ministry of Magic, Hermione is his boss, and Ron runs a joke shop.

There’s plenty for them to do here, and we inevitably encounter figures from their eventful past. Some of these awaken fond memories — sentimental giant Hagrid, for instance — and others are less welcome. But a fresh generation of characters hold centre-stage. Chief among them are Harry’s son Albus, who at first appears tetchy and self-absorbed, and Scorpius, the surprisingly personable son of Harry’s snobbish antagonist Draco Malfoy.

Albus seems stifled by expectation. Having a famous father is a burden and at Hogwarts he finds himself isolated. But the return of dark forces, after a long period of stability in the wizarding world, affords him a chance to prove that he’s more than just a pale imitation of his dad.

Much of what happens here links back to incidents in the fourth of the novels, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and these developments should strengthen fans’ understanding of Harry and several of the books’ numinous presences, especially the sadistic Lord Voldemort.

The play is deeply concerned with parenthood, legacies, the trials of growing up and the preciousness of friendship. It’s genuinely suspenseful, and the new characters are well drawn. Occasional echoes of Star Wars and Back to the Future are surely intended — Rowling has form as an expert in revitalising familiar themes and myths. And if at times the story seems to turn its back on some of the established conventions of the Harry Potter universe, that’s perhaps an attempt to evoke teenage defiance — a determination to find its own style and attitudes, to kick against the manners of its forebears.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - in pictures

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While some Pottermaniacs will balk at the discrepancies between this story’s metaphysics and the ones they’re used to — particularly those relating to time travel — a greater problem may be the intermittent flatness of the script. It’s a plotty, twisty confection, full of incident yet short on poetry. A few of Jack Thorne’s stage directions are vivid, but on the whole they’re briskly informative, creating space for the production’s special effects and visual dazzle, as well as for bold performances.

What’s missing on the page, though not on the stage, is a sense of the sheer density of Harry’s world and the rich drama of its spiritual challenges, comedy and terrors.

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