“The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.”
Words could not do justice to my excitement when news of a Harry Potter stage show, to also be released as a book, surfaced. As a huge Harry Potter fan, any extension of the wizarding world created by genius author and all-round literary queen JK Rowling was the greatest thing imaginable. So yes, I was excited. The book was released while I was on holiday and I remember rushing into Waterstones as soon as I returned with my pre-order slip, eagerly awaiting the story of my favourite fictional characters and their children, 20 years on.
Once I finally had my hands on it, I read it almost instantly and my first reaction was to love it without seeing any flaws. Blinded by the excitement of what was essentially fanfiction becoming canon, I became obsessed with it. I thought it was amazing, a story that needed to be told, one that kept us guessing right until the end. However, after some time away from it, with perspective I see the book is not as amazing as it could have been.
Obviously Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is not intended to be read, it is a play and really needs to be seen performed live so the magic can be witnessed. I really appreciate that when analysing the book and this makes me want to see the stage production even more than my initial Cursed Child obsessed self. Additionally, this review/confession is a long time coming since it took me a while to gather my thoughts and to get the courage to criticise openly something I really wanted to love. I just want to clarify that I did like and enjoy the story very much, I really just didn't love it.
So the first problem for me that needs to be addressed is Ron. Yes, Ron himself in the play is a problem. Everything that Potterheads know and love about Ronald Weasley is cast aside and forgotten by the co-authors (who I suspect had more input than JK herself, unfortunately). The brave, loyal and passionate redhead is reduced to a two dimensional character merely there for comedic value. It was just so sad to me for this to happen. Ron is so much more than a clown and the fact that the depth to his character wasn't explored me really ruined my experience of it.
Furthermore, I just didn't feel that that the world of Harry Potter was further explored or that there were enough moments that revealed aspects of the wizarding world that were previously unknown. My major problem with this is that I felt the writers really didn't take risks, they played it safe, giving fans what they already knew and were comfortable with. A new concept or setting being explored really would have set this play apart from some of the mediocre fanfictions drifting around on Wattpad.
This leads me onto my next point: the Cursed Child felt like bad fanfiction. This is because of the strange way all the what ifs? that are posed on Tumblr forums seemed to magically (pun intended) come true. I appreciate that by setting it in the future with the same characters we know and previously loved would potentially have this feel, but overall I didn't feel that they nailed a world and people previously perfected.
That being said, there were aspects of the Cursed Child that I really enjoyed, for example the relationship between Albus and Scorpius. It was refreshing and sweet to have that sort of innocence returning to the darkened world of Harry Potter. My favourite character was definintely Scorpius as he was the furthest from what I was expecting of him. I anticipated a young, charming and perhaps obnoxious boy, a mirror of his father. Instead, we are presented with a bubbly yet apprehensive child who is anxious to adhere to the rules. His unconditional faith in Albus made me love him instantly and I was so pleasantly surprised to see that he was a truly good person.
Overall, I didn't love the Cursed Child, but this critical mindset makes me even more eager to see the play performed live, I have a feeling there'll be a different touch of magic that will bring the script to life off the page!
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