Harry Potter
First look from premiere of JK Rowling’s Cursed Child
FOR nearly a decade, an army of fans has waited for the magic to return. Little wonder, then, that the West End came to a near standstill last night as they descended for the first glimpse of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
Pavements outside the Palace Theatre, where previews were beginning, thronged with witches and wizards, robes flowing, wands waving as excitement mounted. Some had crossed the globe to be there.
The eighth instalment of the Harry Potter series begins where the final novel’s epilogue left off in 2007, as an adult Harry (who has swapped his deadly battle with Voldemort for a day job at the Ministry of Magic), Ron and Hermione wave their own children off on the Hogwarts Express to their first year of wizarding school.
The first of the previews, considered in the theatre world as an extended period of dress rehearsals, saw the cast eased into their roles by an audience willing them to do well. One said ahead of the curtain rising that she was “literally in shock and may be crying”. Another told J K Rowling, author of the original books, on Twitter that she was “counting down the hours, minutes and seconds”.
After a strict veil of secrecy, in the end it was Rowling herself who gave the biggest hint about plot spoilers, singling out Anthony Boyle who plays Scorpius Malfoy, son of Draco, for a special “break a leg” message before his first performance.
Suffice to say she was not leading the audience up the garden path, as Boyle joins Harry and Ginny Potter’s younger son Albus (Sam Clemmett), who may look like his father did when he was young, but is dealing with a whole other set of parental issues. Rowling’s heroes returned aged 40 with Noma Dumezweni as Hermione, Jamie Parker as Harry, Paul Thornley as Ron and Poppy Miller as Ginny stepping firmly into 2016 with quips about working parenthood and going sugar free. Those who praised the diverse casting were richly rewarded, with around a quarter of the cast and several key characters from ethnic minority backgrounds. As the lights went down the audience whooped with excitement. A standing ovation to finish was a foregone conclusion. The storyline, a hymn to friendship and teenage misfits, contains enough twists to please the most knowledgable of fans, who remained resolutely tight-lipped about the plot as they spit on to the pavement in raptures afterwards. Any fears that the world of Hogwarts on stage would struggle to compete with the multi-million dollar special effects of film were quickly kicked into touch. The set by Christine Jones is one vast unchanging gothic arched hallway, which, with atmospheric lighting by Neil Austin, serves as the platforms of King’s Cross Station, the vast hall of Hogwarts, the echoing corridors of the Ministry of Magic and a myriad other locations. Director John Tiffany uses the actors to create simple imaginative settings out of the old-fashioned travelling trunks which strew the stage.
Mixed in with this simplicity, though, is trickery of the highest order. Objects seemed to disappear before our eyes and characters appeared as if from nowhere.
The scriptwriters have been generous with their Potter in-jokes, with the return of some old favourite characters and enough shock plot twists to cause pantomime gasps from the audience.
They came wanting magic and they got it in spades.
The script, written by Jack Thorne and John Tiffany around an original new story by Rowling, is fast-moving and, most importantly, funny.
But for all the laughs and tricks, this story also promises to be a thriller.
Has Rowling done it again? The audience was in no doubt.