Harry Potter and the Cursed Child retrospective: A Year Later

When Cursed Child was originally announced, Potterheads all over the world screamed in utter ecstasy. Granted, whilst the play-medium made it difficult for the general audience to appreciate the story in its preferred state, the revelation of a rehearsal script being made public kept the flame of hype burning bright in the hearts of fans everywhere.

Personally, when I first saw the cover of the script online, I could hardly contain my glee- further, I haven’t met anyone then and since who thinks that it is anything less than beautiful. Rowling herself, whilst not writing it directly, was taking a heavy interest in it, and acclaimed duo Jack Thorne -playwright- and John Tiffany -director- were heading up the play. All of these aspects -a talented cast, amazing writers and directors, and practically unlimited potential, as well as characters with well over a decade of history behind them- meant that the play failing was a laughable concept.

Indeed, the two-part success would later win a record-breaking nine Olivier awards. These ground-breaking results include:

• Best actor, with Harry himself, Jamie Parker (beating out even Ian McKellen)
• Best supporting actress (Noma Dumezweni as Hermione Granger)
• Best supporting actor (Anthony Boyle as Scorpius Malfoy)
• Best director (John Tiffany)
• Best lighting design
• Best sound design
• Best costume design
• Best set design
• Best new play

Also, as soon as the play opened there was hardly a negative review in sight. Casual viewers and critics alike were simply astounded by the spectacle they were privy to; the following are example of the experience:

Inventively staged, strikingly performed and genuinely theatrical extension of the Harry Potter franchise -Mark Shenton, The Stage

A magical experience tailor made for the stage -Jack Shepard, The Independent

For once the so-called theatrical event of the year really is just that. The long-awaited Harry Potter play, written by Jack Thorne in collaboration with J K Rowling and presented in two installments that together weigh in at more than five hours, is a feast for fans, packed with pathos, dazzling choreography and moments of pure enchantment. -Henry Hitchings, London Evening Standard

On another matter entirely, let’s look back on one of the more memorable aspects of the hype: Hermione being played by a black actress. If you were to ask any random person walking down the street, they would undoubtedly have an answer for you within a matter of seconds, regardless of the strength of their opinion; to clear up the matter of Hermione’s ethnicity, I will give quotations from the original source material themselves:

“An’ they haven’t invented a spell our Hermione can’ do,” said Hagrid proudly, making Hermione go a brilliant shade of magenta. -Prisoner of Azkaban

A shower of brilliantly colored sweets fell into Harry’s lap. It was dusk, and Ron and Hermione had just turned up in the common room, pink-faced from the cold wind and looking as though they’d had the time of their lives. -Prisoner of Azkaban

Hermione went very red, put down her hand, and stared at the floor with her eyes full of tears. -Prisoner of Azkaban

There were footsteps down the passageway and Hermione and Ginny came into the kitchen, both looking pale and drowsy. -Goblet of Fire

Mr. Malfoy’s eyes had returned to Hermione, who went slightly pink, but stared determinedly back at him. -Goblet of Fire

Hermione went very pink and muttered something about not meaning that she wanted to leave. -Goblet of Fire

“Of course they want to be free!” said Hermione at once, though her face was turning pink. -Order of the Phoenix

“So what if I am” said Hermione coolly, though her face was a little pink. “I can have a pen-pal if I -” -Order of the Phoenix

Hermione, on the other hand, had turned scarlet with suppressed rage. -Order of the Phoenix

To Harry’s surprise, Hermione turned a very deep shade of pink at these words. -Half-Blood Prince

“It’s got nothing to do with that!” said Hermione, her cheeks reddening. -Half-Blood Prince

Hermione was hurrying toward them, very pink-faced and wearing a cloak, hat, and gloves. -Half-Blood Prince

“There weren’t,” said Hermione, who had turned pink. “Dumbledore removed them all, but he – he didn’t destroy them. -Deathly Hallows

Harry, Ron and Hermione took their seats in the second row behind Fred and George. Hermione looked rather pink and Ron’s ears were still scarlet. -Deathly Hallows

Hermione turned pink. There was another pause, an awkward and embarrassed one, and then Lupin said, with an air of forcing himself to admit something unpleasant, “Tonks is going to have a baby.” -Deathly Hallows

However, I digress: this retrospective was not supposed to be an essay on whether a character should be played by someone of a different skin colour. I’ll leave that matter to people who actually give a damn. The reason I mentioned this was because of two reasons: it was a notable part of the hype, and therefore a significant part of the play’s history, and because it mirrors the play itself: people were so caught up by the visual appearance that they lost focus on the reasoning and writing behind the character (though the latter part of the parallel refers to actually watching the play).

Notice that the reviews refer more to the actual effects and acting, and atmosphere, AKA the more visual aspects, rather than the writing, narrative and the overall concept that the crew executed to the best of their ability; as you can see from the aforementioned awards, that ability is proven to be very high. As well as this, notice the awards themselves: awards for acting, direction and the ability of the crew. There is absolutely nothing about best script or best story, or any other awards of that type.

There is a reason for this: in my opinion, the script is similar to what comes out of a hippogriff’s backside. So that the basis of this opinion is fully covered, I have every intention of transforming this retrospective into my own personal review of the rehearsal script. However, before I do this, I’ll first explain why this should not be necessary in the first place:

Cursed Child is a play. It was conceived as a play, it was written as a play, and as such it can only be appreciated as best it can be as a play. Any visual medium would work in this regard too, albeit to a lesser extent depending. A movie would allow for superior effects compared to, in the play’s regard, the best that money can buy, but obviously the atmosphere will be lessened as it would lack the mystique of being done right there in front of you, and to an impossibly immersive extent (with the movie format having the same benefits as a TV show, cartoon or live action, though I would be the first to admit that a longer running time would be much to the story’s benefit).

A comic or a manga would be weird to say the least, but that visual medium would still have visual aid. A novel or two would be much to CC’s benefit (but if the story remained the same then the quality would as well as the play- that however, is completely missing the point.)

However, what we have is a play and a script. For obvious reasons, the former is by far the superior format of entertainment -as well as for reasons I’ll get to later- and I’d go as far as to say that this script is indisputably the worst way to enjoy it. A script is something you learn, something that you use to help you perform later on; it is not necessarily as much for entertainment as it is for education. Therefore, bringing something as visually reliant as CC to the most not-visually suited medium there is is an utterly appalling idea; after all, whilst with a book you imagine what is happening you also have a lot of guidance in the matter- it’s a book, for heaven’s sake, there’s detail in literally every word, so you aren’t usually responsible for filling in every single one of the blanks. In any visual medium, you would be able to see the wonder and magic of the play right there in front of you, and you’d be able to appreciate it in that regard.

However, with a script, you can do nothing but to dwell on the words you see before you, with nothing to distract you at all (with the techniques and sophistication of the writer present in a novel).

That therefore begs the question: wouldn’t it be unfair to judge a story in its worst possible format? All considered, I’d say no.

Firstly, like it or not, the script is the most prominent way that people will experience CC. Tickets are usually sold out within hours of them being released to the public, and as such it is highly unlikely that there will ever come a time when the amount of people who have seen the play outnumber those who have only read the script (with the latter having sold two million copies in the first two days).

What’s more, the script was marketed as not just a script of the play, which would arguably mean that judging the book as I’m going to is unfair, but also as the next major story in the Potter franchise. On the back of the beautiful cover are the words, etched in capitalised, black font, “The eighth story. Nineteen years later.” The powers-that-be literally proclaim Cursed Child as the direct sequel to Deathly Hallows, and as such not only proclaim that this is the format which they want us to judge the story with, but also warrant the story to be judged as though it were a Rowling novel- they take the title of Harry Potter to gain popularity and interest, and as such should be compared with the original material as well; let me clarify that just because it is set in the Wizarding World of J.K. Rowling, that does not necessarily mean that it is blatantly attempting to achieve those things through those particular means. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, for example, was part of that world, but whilst it did use the franchise to increase its hype it wasn’t entirely reliant upon the brand to the same extent as CC.

These different points result in one conclusion: Cursed Child proclaimed itself to be the 8^thPotter story, and as such it should be treated as such.

So, in order to fully appreciate the entirety of the product as available to the majority of the public, and without further ado, my review of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child:

Cursed Child, at least in the script format, is the definition of unsatisfactory.

To begin with, the overall quality of the product is quite novice. That’s not to say that everything about the book was bad- merely that, for a project of such scope and effort, the actual effect without the mystique and magnetism of a theatre and the crew’s efforts is one of an average nature. The best things about the play, whilst definitely done well enough to enjoy quite a few times, is nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, you could go to your local book-store and pick out at random a book which does these aspects superior to the script.

That aside, the things the script fails with, it does so horrendously. For instance, there’s an undeniable lack of understanding of some of the characters. The most obvious example of this would be Ron, who -though the play seems to be set in the book timeline- is merely the comic relief, and displays practically none of his book aspects. Instead, he seems to be based entirely on his movie counterpart.

On the subject of humour, I have to say that -personally- the book just didn’t do it for me. Often, it comes out of the blue and has no purpose in the scene, and often it is a detriment that injures the narrative and the established atmosphere rather than a pleasant, necessary break from it. Speaking of coming out of the blue, there’s one occurrence in the play that makes literally no-sense whatsoever, but what’s really baffling for me is that it doesn’t impact anything whatsoever: there’s a completely mind-blowing element that doesn’t affect the narrative at all, and the only effect is one of utter bemusement and a pointless inclusion which confuses the audience.

The arcs of the characters are often stereotypical and follow a strict, predictable and worn-out formula, which whilst not bad in and of itself was not executed well enough for it to be a success. In other instances, characters have no arcs whatsoever (Ron, Hermione) and the other characters did indeed grow but don’t really seem to develop that much (everyone besides Draco, and that’s relying heavily upon what we know through the books; that is, however, excusable seeing as how the writers want us to see the script as a sequel). Due to this, the new characters lack substance, and the old characters gain little, or are in fact worsened.

On the other hand, some scenes are stand-out for positive reasons, just as some are stand-out for more negative aspects. Some in particular are actually pretty intelligent, not spelling out much and instead leaving it to more metaphorical means for the messages to make sense. However, all too often the themes and messages of the story are blatant and practically stamped in bold on the page. The parallels implemented between the characters and each other are rather obvious, but the poorly written, poorly executed and nature of these parallels (in particular those between the villain and main protagonists) makes it so such a would-be thought provoking element lacks in use and wastes time that could have been spent on other parts of the play, such as developing the characters and their interactions with one another.

As well as this, one of my most immediate criticisms is the dialogue; given the critical acclaim of the writers, one would expect the best from Cursed Child in this regard. However, the dialogue is, in my opinion, rather plain and run-of-the-mill. The script continuously attempts to incorporate wit into it -fair enough, given that it’s entirely reliant upon the ability and charisma of the actors-, but often the lines just come off as kind of, in a way, ‘anti-climactic’. Given the magnitude that Cursed Child is in its entirety, it feels as though the lines are trying to reach a level that is continuously beyond what they’re trying to achieve.

The story’s concept is definitely interesting, but overdone many, many times over. Avoiding spoilers (though I doubt that’s necessary) the concept allows for different portrayals of characters, but the explanations behind those portrayals are nowhere near good enough to excuse what happened to the characters (Hermione in the first divergence in the concept, and a spoiler in and of itself in the second). Further, when the divergences realign with the original, the events that took place in the divergences automatically lose any and all impact.

However, those divergences allow for the audience/reader to get a superior grasp of the stakes, which is a good idea as it allows for more emotional investment. However, MAJOR, BUT PREDICTABLE SPOILER the good guys winning results in those divergences/events in/of the story being invalidated, and the characters do not have enough developed character in themselves and not enough developed and interesting enough relationships with one another (the former much less than the latter) for their growing relationships to be good enough to make up for the lack of impact. This results in the play not having enough of an effect on me as a reader, and as such I finish the script thinking that nothing’s really changed.

That said, as this is merely a script for a play, and seemingly most of the emotional investment comes from the actors and the atmosphere, I can’t really criticise this aspect; however, that does not make the script any better, and as such that aspect is still -for me- subpar.

On a different topic entirely, the villain was underwhelming to say the least. Their very background tarnishes one of the most prominent Potter characters, their dialogue is beyond cheesy, and the antagonist’s role couldn’t be more predictable. They come off as a massive Mary Sue, and their potency in magic is not deserved from a narrative perspective.

The antagonist, like most of the characters, undergoes no to little development, and as such the story itself suffers massively.

The stage directions, in my nowhere-near professional opinion, do not do the job at all. They offer little aid to the actors, and sometimes the decisions are just baffling (if I remember correctly, they say that a character should act ‘discombobulated’, that a scene is ‘almost a Spartacus moment’, and they order a specific atmosphere often without offering guidance of how to achieve that atmosphere, not to mention going out of their way to treat one particular character as if he was real, without giving anyone else the same treatment). As such, the script fails at its should-be main point: giving direction to the actors, and the crew behind the performance. Truly, I am desperate to see the play: there are things that happen in this that should not be possible to perform on stage, in front of a live audience, and too to be anywhere near believable. The actors and crew behind the performance must be astonishingly capable to pull this off.

On a side note, let’s address the use of magic in the play (though this should be taken as nowhere near as important and striking as a general audience member as some of the aforementioned points). In a duel, somewhere in the first part of the script, two capable (one inferably very capable), and yet they seem to be combatting at the same level, and using some of the same spells, as 3^rd-5^th years, and the latter is an extreme stretch.

Also, the use of SPOILER goes against what it has presented to be in the original source material, and blatantly contradicts itself many times in the latter half. This breaks immersion as effectively as a hot knife through butter.

TO CONCLUDE:

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is not abysmal, but that isn’t to say it’s good. It succeeds sometimes in quite a few aspects (dynamic between characters, metaphorical scenes and some other heartfelt scenes) but commonly the script is mediocre at best, and embarrassing at worst. The dialogue is commonly average and novice, the humour subpar, and the interactions between characters are predictable, as well as the storyline in and of itself. Major characters in the established lore are tarnished, and are altered at a fundamental level.

Following a scene-by-scene analysis, I reached the conclusion that Cursed Child is, on average, a 4.866514568/10, but in retrospect it is more of a 3.9999-4.3/10.

To repeat, I did the script-review so as to appreciate CC as best as I can in the formats that are available the most to the general public, but I also did it to emphasise one thing: Cursed Child is a play. It was conceived as a play, and -despite the dubious quality of the script- it was written as one as well.

It is in this play format that Cursed Child succeeds, and should I ever have the chance to see it I have no doubt that I would love it. We really have to stop dwelling on the negatives in the form of the script’s shortcomings, and instead focusing on the positives; Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a very pleasant experience in the correct environment, it’s only because that the best environment is so difficult to come across that it faces such critical opposition in its entirety.

The message that I wish to communicate here is that we must accept the ups and downs that comes with specific mediums of entertainment, and we must also acknowledge that we don’t always have the best formats at our means to enjoy something.

…

But the script is pretty bad and underwhelming, format be damned.