You’ll still whoop for all the wonderful magic, but this distilled version reinforces just how much this play has always functioned as a greatest hits tour of all things Potter: there are time turners, dementors, the invisibility cloak, trips into the Forbidden Forest, magical duels and plenty of surprise reunions with dead characters. What is inarguable is that someone thought the change was important.Ĭrucially, the abridged Cursed Child is not better for being shorter. Whether giving Harry a son who seems ever-so-slightly queer has anything to do with Rowling’s now public views on trans people, aired since the play debuted six years ago, is unknown and unlikely ever to be confirmed by anyone. The sub is gone from the subtext Scorpius’s female love interest in the original is now a platonic friend. Six years on, it is clear someone felt it was now appropriate. The original show was criticised for “queerbaiting” Albus and Scorpius, but director John Tiffany – who is gay – then said it “would not been appropriate” to make the nature of their relationship any clearer. (Albus’s older brother James is forgettable now their sister Lily is entirely gone.) One major character, who is secretly a villain and was included in much of the original show, is now barely on stage at all, making their big reveal feel a little wet.Īnd yet, among all the cuts, one scene has noticeably been added: in the second half, Albus takes Harry aside to inform his father that he will have to accept Scorpius as “the most important person in my life”, a declaration made with weighted urgency and one that his father benignly accepts. Some characters are dropped entirely and go unnoticed others are reduced to the point that you wonder why they are included at all.
There was something interesting in seeing more of her boy hero as an adult man, trying to give his children a healthy childhood while reckoning with his undeniably traumatic one. (I felt for many of the actors who, towards the end, are literally sprinting on and off stage.) Somehow, there are even more magic tricks: no matter how many times you see this play, it’s hard to resist the joys of all the fiery explosions and optical illusions.īut gone is much of the background richness that, while not essential to the story, gave a better sense of Rowling’s world maturing. Exposition is rattled off like we’re at the races, lighter fluid can be seen splashing across the stage as the actors twirl about, and scenes change at breakneck speed. But with the new cuts, The Cursed Child is now even plottier, and there is still a lot of it to steam through. ‘No matter how many times you see this play, it’s hard to resist the joys of all the fiery explosions and optical illusions.’ Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre.
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