"Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" - Pre-Viewing Thoughts and Reflections

[fh14]

Okay, so I never properly sat down and read the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child... "book". At the time, it was because I knew it was the early rehearsal edition and not the final version of the script, which is what I would prefer to read. But in all honesty, I'm not a huge fan of consuming media connected to stage productions I haven't seen. As a child I found Shakespeare more engaging when performed on stage than I ever did in text form, because ultimately a script is written with the intention that half of it's meaning would be brought by the actors' performances. And that version of the story was the version of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child I wanted to consume. The problem? In Summer 2016, the play was only being performed in London - where I do not live - and the tickets were extremely expensive and hard to get.

Then the play opened in New York, and I made an impulsive decision.

Tonight, me and wellfourthings will be attending Part 1 of the two-part play, and I'm exciting to finally experience this story properly for the first time. I know the basic structure of it already, I spend a lot of time on the internet and I didn't care enough to avoid spoilers, but I don't know all that much in terms of specifics. But I do know people's very specific feelings about certain specific parts and plot beats.

I know people hate Hermione's characterization in the other timeline. I know people hate Harry's characterization in the main timeline. I know people aren't a fan of the in-universe mechanics that caused the other timeline (vs how time-turners were shown in Prisoner of Azkaban). I know people don't like the thing with Voldemort and Bellatrix's daughter. I know people don't like the heteronormativity of the Albus-Scorpius-Rose thing. I know people don't like certain dialog (Blood Ball).

Honestly, none of these things really feel like deal-breakers to me. Honestly, I'm excited that JKR made something sillier and less intense with the property than, say, a prequel with an insane and terrible narrative arc. And I am encouraged by the fact that everyone seems to love Scorpius Malfoy, and the reception of the play has been vastly different from those who've seen it performed and those who've only read the script (another reason I didn't read the script). I'm not expecting a Tony-award winning masterpiece, but I'm hoping for something that's fun, entertaining, well acted and competently put together. I don't think these expectations are out of line (especially considering how much the tickets cost... oof).

Originally, I planned to rewatch all the Harry Potter movies before today so the original story would be fresh in my mind, but honestly, considering the divergences in the film adaptions and how, from what I can tell, the play adheres to book canon, it's probably for the best that I didn't. But maybe someday when I reread all the Harry Potter books, I'll finally take a crack at that script in the end. And maybe, just maybe, this play could inspire me to re-engage with Harry Potter fandom in a way I haven't in years.

I will say I'm not looking forward to waiting outside the theater in this cold weather. Maybe I'll impulse-buy a piece of merchandise to reward myself lol.

(As a semi-unrelated aside, I don't like listening to the soundtracks of things I haven't seen either. To this day, the only bits of Hamilton I've heard are what my friends have played in the car while I've driven around with them.)

Comments

[aeslis]

This is an interesting take on it all. I applaud you for going in with such a mindset. I did read the script, and--you've probably heard this before--it felt like fanfic. Which is fine! But it's hard to consider it part of the canon.

This is coming from someone who hasn't seen the script acted at all, so definitely, as you say, I haven't experienced it as it was meant to be experienced.

[fh14]

I think a lot of it has to do with tone and medium. Cursed Child is very much something written to be performed on stage and not read like a book. (And IMO this is a big reason why the Fantastic Beasts movies have been such a mess - they're not written tailored to the medium they are.)

For example, I went in knowing some of the criticisms and stuff like the Ron/Hermione storylines/interactions (which I know were received poorly by readers) absolutely killed on stage because it came down to the actors performances and how it was staged. It was more lighthearted and (save for a handful of moments) didn't take itself all that seriously.