Reviews Theatre / Harry Potter And The Cursed Child

Decent Fanfiction

The most important thing to remember when talking about Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is that it's good! It's full of things to pick at and any conversation is going to end up griping about the many oddities and mistakes, but at the end of the day this was a book I read in one sitting because I didn't want to stop.

The second thing to remember is that a play script is not a book. Plays are always less subtle, the audience has to do more work just to follow the plot on stage.

But The Cursed Child is fanfiction, not in a completely derogatory way, but because its existence is purely to comment on and react to the original seven stories. Emotional payoffs are payoffs to desires and cravings created in the fanbase by the ending of the 'true' series. If you've ever found yourself thinking "I wish that character had had a chance to say what they felt to Harry", well Cursed Child will give you that. If you adore Ginny and want to see her and Harry again and get more of what they have together, Cursed Child will give you that. If you want some niggling plotholes from the series swept up, Cursed Child does that (and creates a dozen more).

For the most part, it's good fanservice. The story is engaging, it shows a side of our favourite characters that we've always wanted to see (although Luna is criminally absent and it's inevitable that you won't see enough of most of your favourite characters). For the most part it doesn't do anything new, but it confirms the subtext we all knew was there in gratifying ways.

In the negative column, timetravel stories are already played out, and time travel stories involving going back to revisit events from the proper books are even more played out. Cursed Child's timetravel fails to meet even those standards. Timetravel was one of the worst things in the original books and bringing it back was picking at a scab.

And it has one moment of some of the stupidest writing I've ever seen. I won't spoil it, but it involves Cedric Diggory and it's practically blasphemous to his character and in a story which is theoretically meant to be honouring him as a person.

Generally the themes fall pretty flat and don't feel genuine in the plot. 'Friendship is Magic' feels weak after the much more complicated musings on heroism and virtue in Harry and Dumbledore's endings in Deathly Hallows. And even then we don't need characters literally saying "I never fight alone!". Draco feels like he's accidentally cribbing from his Leather Pants Trope page!

But there is a gem of real story in here too. The children are real unique characters, not reflections of their parents. Harry's relationship with Albus Severus is terrifyingly real and will leave many a young parent in cold sweats. The Harry Potter world is expanded in a genuine and quirky way, with all the right names and weird things. It has a tinge of grown-up too. I love the way Harry and Ginny cast Lumos when one is having a rough nights sleep.

Ready, enjoy, stop.