Cursed Child reaction post part 2
Part two of my massive rambling Cursed Child post be here. This is getting more into plot, thematic stuff, and particular scenes/moments.
The tone was really well-judged and impressive - both the script and the actors worked to keep comedy moments throughout, without undercutting the family drama or the horror elements.
The magic effects were absolutely brilliant. I couldn’t tell at all how some of them were done. And in general they had the great charm of physical effects - fun and allowing you both to enjoy the artistry that made them work and to suspend your disbelief. Dumbledore’s portrait, for example, was the actor standing behind a gold frame. The brilliant lighting meant that you could relax into the scene of Harry and a portrait despite the initial moments of “ooh how cool they’re doing it like x”. They showed people entering the Ministry via the phone box with hooded cloaks moving to the phone boxes at the back of the stage before being sucked in - so you could work out how it was done in retrospect but there was still the shock of ZOMG PERSON SUCKED INTO SMALL HOLE. Same thing with the body horror of Harry being transfigured into Voldemort - falling to his knees, crying out in pain, before ARGH VOLDEMORT HAND SPROUTING OUT OF HIS BACK.
There were a lot of magic effects, a lot of casual magic use that made the world feel real - e.g. Harry magicking his paperwork into tidy piles. It felt even more real because they would be used and there wouldn’t be that pause you sometimes get in theatre, so that we can all take another second or two to appreciate what just happened. Sometimes that pause is nice but not having it made it feel like of course, there’s magic all the time for these people and it’s taken as read.
Speaking of magic - THE TROLLEY WITCH. That was brilliant. It was a great Harry Potter-style reveal: that thing that was introduced earlier, like the pet rat or the guy who lent Hagrid his motorbike or that potion? SO MANY MORE LEVELS THAN YOU KNEW. Also it was incredibly cool and creepy: seeing her on the roof with “anything from the trolley, dears?” was a fantastic moment of the uncanny (i.e. familiar yet unfamiliar causing creepiness) and ARGH when her fingers and fingernails lengthened!!!! Also Albus and Scorpius were so funny in their reactions, especially Scorpius as she approached and he, increasingly hysterically, actually talked himself into jumping after Albus.
Moaning Myrtle was fabulous. She had the voice down pat and I think the actress must also be a dancer? The sink was set up with two smooth metal circles, one smaller and underneath, and she was constantly spinning round, lying across them, shifting in fluid ways that made her feel ghostly even though she was so very corporeal - and also got across her lack of an attention span, as she spun back and forth between Harry and Draco (or Albus and Scorpius) at stage right and left.
The Umbridge moment was also amazing. She appears in pink but not ENTIRELY in pink, and you’re worrying about where Albus is and watching Scorpius flail his way out of the lake - so at least for me, I think especially because I was watching it instead of reading, I didn’t realise straight away. She was talking about the Malfoy family being important and used the term “Mudblood” which was genuinely something of a shock, and then you realise before Scorpius did and ARGH. Great, great twist and I’m so glad I saw it all on one day!!!
The dementor that came floating out into the audience, around the auditorium, was particularly terrifying. And the symbol of the new world, which flashed up on the screens next to the rows of seats as the first part ended, was perfect - the graphic design was genius. It’s both a Dark Mark dealio and very reminiscent of mid-century European fascism in its style, so it felt perfect and, especially in a British context, was amazing at making your hair stand on end.
Severus and Hermione had a little moment - after her line about “I’m pretty sure that was pure Severus Snape” he took hold of her shoulders and they looked at each other, and then it was goodbye, and I was just like “...was that an implication???”
Hermione and Ron losing their souls together in a heroic last stand. It was so horrific, you guys. The Dementors swarmed over them and they were flat on their backs, reaching for each other’s hands, and then you saw their hands spasming from under the black Dementor cloaks. :(((
So, I was kind of wincing at the “Voldemort’s automatically-evil child facing off against Harry’s” thing when I thought that would happen, but actually I was totally into it in the end. Because Delphi is the antagonist but she’s not the point; she’s there because parents (fathers) and children, and trying to live up to the expectations of your parents and the world and yourself, is the centre of the play. So she’s another echo of that theme. (Although I’m going to go ARGH again about the moment when the theatre lit up with her scrawled messages all over the auditorium. ARGH. Actually so scary.)
And they fight her together, and really how Delphi loses is not the climax of the play? It’s about them being able to come together, and the horror of Harry having to be Voldemort, and then the terrible moments of watching James and Lily die and choosing not to save them for the sake of the world. Which were truly horrific, by the way. Our characters stood on stage staring into the auditorium, watching while the audio played. Draco had his arms round Scorpius so he wouldn’t be able to watch. And when Lily screamed Harry fell to his knees, and the stage went dark and they rotated away (different bits of the stage rotated) and you could just hear him crying. HARRY :((((((((((( And it was even more painful because he spends a lot of the play trying to suppress his emotional responses, whether anger or guilt or pain - obviously repeatedly with Albus, but also with Amos and Ginny at different points - and then he’s crumbled to the floor and wailing because he can’t anymore, this is too much :(((
The body language between Harry and Albus was great - Harry reaching out then crumpling back, Albus spiky and uncooperative.
The parenting stuff in general I found so fascinating and plausible. Harry and Draco’s scene together, where they talked about how they’d given their sons what they’d needed themselves as children rather than what their sons needed now - it was so perfect. Harry and Draco are always parallels, opposites yet the same, and of course it’s the same with this. You could also really feel how the trauma of war (and in Harry’s case an abusive childhood) reverberated through their parenting. Draco and Astoria keeping Scorpius lonely and away from the world in order to protect him from hostile rumour; Harry not knowing what Albus could need if loving family and Hogwarts can’t provide it for him. Even Hermione, wondering when and if she’d made a choice to focus on saving the world over being a great parent.
And then Harry is able to learn a bit better, to try to see who Albus is now. (I really loved that Ginny pointed out that it’s not enough that Albus knows Harry would do anything for him - “you’d do anything for anyone” was delivered in a loving, admiring, slightly impatient way - but that he needs to feel Harry’s specific love for him.) And it was interesting to me - because Albus does know how to push Harry’s buttons and of course knows his story, and as Ginny points out he knows when Harry is being Harry Potter: Hero - the extent to which that was about Albus learning about Harry as much as the other way round. Albus seeing the original pain that everything else led from in James and Lily’s deaths at Voldemort’s hands, and Harry being willing to let Albus see his very private pain: that Cedric stays with him. That he visits Cedric’s grave and says sorry.
Sleeptime for me now :) I promise I’ll catch up on comments tomorrow!
This was originally posted at http://lokifan.dreamwidth.org/344914.html. Comment wherever you like :)
The tone was really well-judged and impressive - both the script and the actors worked to keep comedy moments throughout, without undercutting the family drama or the horror elements.
The magic effects were absolutely brilliant. I couldn’t tell at all how some of them were done. And in general they had the great charm of physical effects - fun and allowing you both to enjoy the artistry that made them work and to suspend your disbelief. Dumbledore’s portrait, for example, was the actor standing behind a gold frame. The brilliant lighting meant that you could relax into the scene of Harry and a portrait despite the initial moments of “ooh how cool they’re doing it like x”. They showed people entering the Ministry via the phone box with hooded cloaks moving to the phone boxes at the back of the stage before being sucked in - so you could work out how it was done in retrospect but there was still the shock of ZOMG PERSON SUCKED INTO SMALL HOLE. Same thing with the body horror of Harry being transfigured into Voldemort - falling to his knees, crying out in pain, before ARGH VOLDEMORT HAND SPROUTING OUT OF HIS BACK.
There were a lot of magic effects, a lot of casual magic use that made the world feel real - e.g. Harry magicking his paperwork into tidy piles. It felt even more real because they would be used and there wouldn’t be that pause you sometimes get in theatre, so that we can all take another second or two to appreciate what just happened. Sometimes that pause is nice but not having it made it feel like of course, there’s magic all the time for these people and it’s taken as read.
Speaking of magic - THE TROLLEY WITCH. That was brilliant. It was a great Harry Potter-style reveal: that thing that was introduced earlier, like the pet rat or the guy who lent Hagrid his motorbike or that potion? SO MANY MORE LEVELS THAN YOU KNEW. Also it was incredibly cool and creepy: seeing her on the roof with “anything from the trolley, dears?” was a fantastic moment of the uncanny (i.e. familiar yet unfamiliar causing creepiness) and ARGH when her fingers and fingernails lengthened!!!! Also Albus and Scorpius were so funny in their reactions, especially Scorpius as she approached and he, increasingly hysterically, actually talked himself into jumping after Albus.
Moaning Myrtle was fabulous. She had the voice down pat and I think the actress must also be a dancer? The sink was set up with two smooth metal circles, one smaller and underneath, and she was constantly spinning round, lying across them, shifting in fluid ways that made her feel ghostly even though she was so very corporeal - and also got across her lack of an attention span, as she spun back and forth between Harry and Draco (or Albus and Scorpius) at stage right and left.
The Umbridge moment was also amazing. She appears in pink but not ENTIRELY in pink, and you’re worrying about where Albus is and watching Scorpius flail his way out of the lake - so at least for me, I think especially because I was watching it instead of reading, I didn’t realise straight away. She was talking about the Malfoy family being important and used the term “Mudblood” which was genuinely something of a shock, and then you realise before Scorpius did and ARGH. Great, great twist and I’m so glad I saw it all on one day!!!
The dementor that came floating out into the audience, around the auditorium, was particularly terrifying. And the symbol of the new world, which flashed up on the screens next to the rows of seats as the first part ended, was perfect - the graphic design was genius. It’s both a Dark Mark dealio and very reminiscent of mid-century European fascism in its style, so it felt perfect and, especially in a British context, was amazing at making your hair stand on end.
Severus and Hermione had a little moment - after her line about “I’m pretty sure that was pure Severus Snape” he took hold of her shoulders and they looked at each other, and then it was goodbye, and I was just like “...was that an implication???”
Hermione and Ron losing their souls together in a heroic last stand. It was so horrific, you guys. The Dementors swarmed over them and they were flat on their backs, reaching for each other’s hands, and then you saw their hands spasming from under the black Dementor cloaks. :(((
So, I was kind of wincing at the “Voldemort’s automatically-evil child facing off against Harry’s” thing when I thought that would happen, but actually I was totally into it in the end. Because Delphi is the antagonist but she’s not the point; she’s there because parents (fathers) and children, and trying to live up to the expectations of your parents and the world and yourself, is the centre of the play. So she’s another echo of that theme. (Although I’m going to go ARGH again about the moment when the theatre lit up with her scrawled messages all over the auditorium. ARGH. Actually so scary.)
And they fight her together, and really how Delphi loses is not the climax of the play? It’s about them being able to come together, and the horror of Harry having to be Voldemort, and then the terrible moments of watching James and Lily die and choosing not to save them for the sake of the world. Which were truly horrific, by the way. Our characters stood on stage staring into the auditorium, watching while the audio played. Draco had his arms round Scorpius so he wouldn’t be able to watch. And when Lily screamed Harry fell to his knees, and the stage went dark and they rotated away (different bits of the stage rotated) and you could just hear him crying. HARRY :((((((((((( And it was even more painful because he spends a lot of the play trying to suppress his emotional responses, whether anger or guilt or pain - obviously repeatedly with Albus, but also with Amos and Ginny at different points - and then he’s crumbled to the floor and wailing because he can’t anymore, this is too much :(((
The body language between Harry and Albus was great - Harry reaching out then crumpling back, Albus spiky and uncooperative.
The parenting stuff in general I found so fascinating and plausible. Harry and Draco’s scene together, where they talked about how they’d given their sons what they’d needed themselves as children rather than what their sons needed now - it was so perfect. Harry and Draco are always parallels, opposites yet the same, and of course it’s the same with this. You could also really feel how the trauma of war (and in Harry’s case an abusive childhood) reverberated through their parenting. Draco and Astoria keeping Scorpius lonely and away from the world in order to protect him from hostile rumour; Harry not knowing what Albus could need if loving family and Hogwarts can’t provide it for him. Even Hermione, wondering when and if she’d made a choice to focus on saving the world over being a great parent.
And then Harry is able to learn a bit better, to try to see who Albus is now. (I really loved that Ginny pointed out that it’s not enough that Albus knows Harry would do anything for him - “you’d do anything for anyone” was delivered in a loving, admiring, slightly impatient way - but that he needs to feel Harry’s specific love for him.) And it was interesting to me - because Albus does know how to push Harry’s buttons and of course knows his story, and as Ginny points out he knows when Harry is being Harry Potter: Hero - the extent to which that was about Albus learning about Harry as much as the other way round. Albus seeing the original pain that everything else led from in James and Lily’s deaths at Voldemort’s hands, and Harry being willing to let Albus see his very private pain: that Cedric stays with him. That he visits Cedric’s grave and says sorry.
Sleeptime for me now :) I promise I’ll catch up on comments tomorrow!
This was originally posted at http://lokifan.dreamwidth.org/344914.html. Comment wherever you like :)