Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One and Two (Special Rehearsal Edition)

by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne

[clementine]

First: I do believe that it is difficult to evaluate a play only by its script, but that's the position most of us are in here.

So, I liked the actual plot for the play well enough. It was nowhere near the complexity of a Harry Potter book, but I thought it was a clever melding of the new generation of characters with the lore we're all familiar with - though there was a bit more of the nostalgia factor than novelty. (Really, the play was an excuse to revisit some classic HP scenes and characters in a sometimes overly soppy way.) I really liked the character of Scorpius, and Albus's character growth was enjoyable. (Though at the beginning of the play he will really test the patience of anyone who sometimes finds Harry a bit whiny...)

A lot of the dialogue and characterization fell short for me. It was pretty obvious that JK Rowling did not write the script. She helped to come up with the story, which explains why the plot is fairly strong. (There's also a classic JKR hiding a majorly important part of the plot in plain sight moment.) But a lot of the dialogue was pretty bad, to be honest. The lighter, funnier bits could be enjoyable, but a lot of it was either very stilted or heavy-handed emotionally. And some of the characterization was just downright off. I've been a Harry Potter fan for 16 years and I've read all the books countless times (and my profile picture was taken at the HP studio tour in London...), there is no way I'm going to be convinced that Ron, deeply flawed as he may be, was drunk during his wedding vows.

Overall I think the play is more a trip down memory lane/potential tear-jerker for diehard HP fans than anything else. People who haven't already read the books or seen the movies aren't going to get much out of this one, because it relies so heavily on the mythology from the books that it just barely stands alone. Plot-wise, I do think it does a good job at that, and the two timelines are fairly cleverly woven together. And I can imagine that the actual play is probably pretty marvellous to see. But I think a lot of HP fans are going to be reluctant to accept this as canon, especially the many who only have the script, and might rather see it as an optional supplement to the seven books. Personally I know I will probably not be including this in my future re-reads of the series.