All the Wizarding World's a Stage: Initial Thoughts on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

[connielane]

First, and most generally, believe the hype. It is phenomenal, truly. Even if you have read the playscript (of which there are two versions now available, the rehearsal version and the final version), you are still going to have your face rocked off. I am very curious to see what happens with the Tony nominations next week (HPCC *just* got in

Comments

[steampen]

I read the play when it came out and I have to admit I really REALLY didn't like it. I'm sure it plays much better on stage, but I had three major issues and I'd love your opinion on them as someone who actually saw it live:

1) Albus annoyed the everloving shit out of me. Perhaps it's because I deal with teenagers all day at work but his entitlement drove me up the wall and I quickly started wishing the whole story was centered on Rose and Scorpius with Albus basically not existing.

2) I did not latch to the character of Voldemort's A/U secret daughter. The way she's written is very Mary-Sueish. I've seen better OCs in tons of fanfics. Which is weird if indeed they're trying to say that canon is good as it is? It just seemed sloppy to me.

3) By far my biggest issue was the idea that Cedric Freakin Diggory would become a Death Eater after one stupid high school humiliation. By all accounts the guy is a true blue Hufflepuff and a sweetheart, and asides from a traumatic event like seeing his whole family murdered in front of his eyes, I can't imagine him turning evil by any stretch of the imagination.

Am I too picky? Or is it just that this is more glaring when you read it than when you see it?

[connielane]

1) I think the acting and the staging helps a lot here. Albus has a weight on his shoulders that James and the other kids don't. I mean, the weight of that name, for starters! And you really (or at least I did) get the sense that he feels alone; he doesn't like Hogwarts, the other students don't like him, and the only thing in his life is his friendship with Scorpius (a friendship that his father doesn't want him to have for most of the play).

Side note: I ... didn't really like Rose. I'm sure it's mostly because she doesn't play a huge role, but it's like she got all of Hermione's swottiness and superiority but none of her heart.

2) I liked Delphi much more on stage than in the script. The actress really makes her come alive, and she reminds me a lot of Tonks (at least in Part 1). I don't see her existence as threatening to the "canon is good as it is" theme. She wasn't even born until around the climax of the final book. So her existence doesn't really change canon until she persuades Albus and Scorpius to ... well, change canon. :-)

3) It should definitely feel wrong that Cedric became a Death Eater. We *should* feel that it can't be possible, except that it *must* be because we can see for ourselves how utterly wonky the world went because of it. Scorpius sells this really well on stage.

Cedric was sort of preserved in amber for us at 17 or 18. We never got to see what kind of man he would be when he left Hogwarts. He was all potential. And I can't imagine he lost the tournament and then just become a Death Eater the next day. About three years passed between the tournament and the battle, and any number of things in between could have also been something they could have changed to get him off the path that led to killing Neville. But sabotaging him in the tournament is the only changed event Scorpius is aware of and knows can be fixed. And in a world where Ron and Hermione never get together because Ron didn't get jealous of Viktor that one time, this doesn't seem that far-fetched to me.