British humour infuses Potted Potter
Star says he lends ‘strange and weird’ quality to much-lauded show, writes Louis B. Hobson
The stage show Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Experience is an international sensation.
As conceived by and originally starring Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner, it is all things J.K. Rowling condensing all seven Harry Potter novels to a brisk 70 minutes.
It’s been called super, ingenious, amazing, glorious, goofy and mind-bending but to James Percy, who with fellow Brit Joseph Maudsley is bringing Potted Potter to Calgary from Nov. 10 to 27, the show is really just about “two British guys having way too much fun.
“It’s all silly wigs, silly voices and silly walks,” says Percy.
“It’s one of the oldest traditions in British comedy.”
It’s basically what you’d get if you sent the Monty Python gang to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Percy has been playing Harry in Potted Potter for more than three years, hopping from North America to Asia, Australia, the British Isles and Europe.
His co-star, in this case Maudsley, is the guy who plays every other character in the Potter universe.
In 2013, with a very successful run in London under their belts, creators Clarkson and Turner were looking for a new duo to take the show to New York for an off-Broadway run, and Percy auditioned and was chosen.
“I think they realized I’m just as strange and weird as they are,” Percy says, “and that’s the one quality this show needs.”
Percy grew up reading the Harry Potter novels and waiting breathlessly for each new book and each new movie.
“For me at 12 years old, the wizard world was a realistic parallel universe. Those books were so three dimensional.”
There was a difference between Percy and Harry.
“Harry was the boy who wanted to be a wizard. I was the boy who wanted to be an actor,” says Percy, whose mother was a dancer and father a drummer.
“My parents did everything to dissuade me from being an actor. They wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer.”
To please his parents, Percy studied law, got his degree, promptly handed it over to his parents and then enrolled in a drama school.
“I’ve never regretted the decision, especially since taking on Potted Potter.”
Now a world traveller, Percy says his trip to Asia was really surreal.
“In Singapore and Hong Kong they went crazy for us. In Dubai we were completely sold out, but it was our visit to Manilla in the Philippines that really blew me away.
“We were rock stars. I now know what it must have been like being a member of One Dimension. They would scream at us in the streets.”
Another surreal aspect of being in Potted Potter are the audiences themselves.
“So many people come in costume that it’s like stepping into the great hall at Hogwarts.”
Percy’s dream is that “one day the big three — Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint — will come to the show.”
“They’d have to come wearing baseball caps and dark glasses to avoid being mobbed,” he says, before offering some different advice.
“Maybe they could come wearing their Potter costumes and just blend in.”
Percy says he and his fellow Potted Potter actors have played venues of all sizes.
“In Washington, D.C., we played a massive theatre that was completely sold out. The response was often deafening.
“Then in Detroit we played a really intimate comedy club. It was like being in somebody’s living room, but it felt every bit as exciting as the huge venues.”
The Canadian tour began in the Maritimes on Sept. 24, and is scheduled to conclude in Toronto on Dec. 31.
In Calgary, Potted Potter will play in the Boyce Theatre on the Stampede grounds. Tickets range from $39.95 to $99.95 and it’s advisable to check out the website at pottedpotter.com for specific details. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster and at ticketmaster.ca.