

In particular, it seemed as though they may have underestimated the fan response to the story’s revelations. It’s clear the cast and creative team will take much from these first two public airings. Played touchingly by Sam Clemmett and Jamie Parker, there were plenty of tears as the curtain fell. Especially not when you’re living in the shadow of The Boy Who Lived.
Harry potter and the cursed child book info series#
After a seven-book series about a boy trying to cope without his parents, the overriding message of Cursed Child-which starts 19 years after the last book-seemed to be that having your parents around doesn’t necessarily make growing up any easier. The darkness in the text felt more like the Jack Thorne we know from This is England and The Fades, making his interest in the project clearer. In contrast to Part 1, the emphasis here was more firmly on the adult cast, as Harry struggled to relate to his son Albus. But by Dumbledore, the magic does live on.'Harry Potter And The Cursed Child' Wows West End Audience - First Preview Report Somewhere amid the rave reviews of the performed play and the high-octane build-up of worldwide expectation, Cursed Child the script cannot hold a wand to the seven books that came before it, enchanting and much greater than the magnificent sum of their parts. Even if the book were excused for being a script, the dialogue is often amateurishly clunky and lacks the subtext and literary aesthetic that render other published scripts far more engrossing. The reader is left craving for descriptions more vivid than the dry, sparse, only-as-necessary, off-putting stage directions, and, all too often, cringing at dialogues that violate that cardinal rule of writing-they tell, not show, forcing ungainly phrases out of characters who constantly describe, explain, reason and feel out loud in conversation.

As a play, of course, the rehearsal edition script may well serve its purpose, actual enactment making up for the lack of textual imagery. Composed as a script rather than a novel, it is replete with the bones of dialogue, but sorely lacking in the flesh of eloquent narrative that characterizes Rowling’s own writing. And while this is likely to please fans whose hopes and imaginations for the characters have come true in print, it may well disappoint and seem inauthentic to others.Ĭursed Child’s true Achilles Heel, however, is its form. But dig deeper, and it reveals a bedlam of plots relayed through time-travel and alternative realities, a seeming patchwork of fan-fiction storylines. The basic story, then, does bear Rowling’s unmistakeable imprint. The play also revisits familiar iconic scenes from the series, which in the context of the overarching, quintessentially Harry Potter themes it explores- good versus evil, the potency of friendship and love, sacrifice and duty, and the ramifications of alienation-make for welcome bursts of nostalgia. For every new character introduced-be it Rose Weasley, the daughter and spitting image of Hermione, or the seemingly innocuous, yet enigmatic Delphi- several beloved old characters, from Professor McGonagall, Dumbledore and Snape to Bane the Centaur and the Hogwarts Express’ trolley lady make memorable reappearances, offering nuggets of precious information to process over Butterbeer or pumpkin juice. It is, for one, as much a celebration of old stories as it is a new one. Though intricately laid out and riddled with unexpected and often-bizarre plot twists, Cursed Child is a fast-paced, light read and an undeniable page-turner for the die-hard Harry Potter fan. Cue the Hedwig Theme from the Harry Potter soundtrack, and thus begins another adventure. And when Albus hears that Amos Diggory is desperate to bring his son Cedric back from the dead, the duo embark on a quest through time and space (quite literally) to right a wrong that Albus believes his father committed during the Triwizard Tournament all those years ago. A series of ominous signs and events- Harry has nightmares, his scar hurts, a time-turner is retrieved from a criminal- portend danger. The two are endearing from the get-go and form a near-instantaneous connection, and the unlikely partnership soon blossoms into fierce friendship. The plot centres on two of the next generation of wizards, Albus Severus Potter-Harry’s second-born son, perturbed by the burden of his father’s shadow and his identity as the black sheep of the Potters when he is sorted into Slytherin (yes, exclamation!)-and Scorpius Malfoy-Draco Malfoy’s only son, geeky, similarly discomforted by his family’s history, and plagued by the rumour that he is, in fact, Voldemort’s child (yes, gasp!).
