Terrifying, mesmerising, magical: Harry Potter lives up to the hype - Sydney Morning Herald

THEATRE
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts I and II
Princess Theatre, Melbourne
★★★★½

Hype doesn’t even begin to cover the sense of anticipation around the Australian premiere of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Held on Saturday night at Melbourne’s historic Princess Theatre, refurbished and transformed into Hogwarts for the occasion, this singular theatrical event lives up to the buzz.

It will keep audiences enchanted for years to come.

Generally, only major musicals book seasons that far in advance, though it’s worth remembering that the world record-holder for longest-running show, Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, is straight-up narrative theatre that’s been playing continuously on the West End since 1952.

Sean Rees-Wemyss as Albus Potter and William McKenna as Scorpius Malfoy.Credit:Matt Murphy

Like Christie’s play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has an intricately constructed plot with a clever twist. (And J.K. Rowling’s online campaign urging audiences to #KeeptheSecrets takes a leaf out of The Mousetrap tradition, too, where audiences are asked not to reveal the identity of the murderer at the conclusion of each performance.)

Unlike it, The Cursed Child keeps the magic coming for well over four hours, in two instalments, and what’s unique about the show is how judiciously it combines story and spectacle to craft an immersive theatrical epic. Indeed, it’s such a transfixing experience, so assiduously tailored to deepen and expand anyone’s delight in the Harry Potter universe – its lore and its characters, their backstories and fates – you can’t call yourself a real fan till you’ve seen it.

We start where the books leave off, with an adult Harry and Ginny Potter farewelling second son Albus as he’s about to board the Hogwarts Express for the first time.

Albus (Sean Rees-Wemyss) finds the weight of expectation that goes with the Potter name daunting, though a budding friendship with fellow outcast Scorpius (William McKenna) powers a buddy story layered and complicated by the fact that the children in the original books have grown up and embarked on an adventure for which not even defeating Voldemort could prepare them.

Parenthood.

A difficult challenge that one, and you don’t have to treat your kid like “the ultimate horcrux” to make the odd wrong move.

Here, we’re thrown into the tempestuous relationship between Harry and a teenaged Albus. Floundering in the face of mutual misunderstanding, it leads Albus to start a new alliance of plucky youngsters trying to right magical wrongs. But the next generation don’t know what they’re up against, any more than their parents did, and when Harry’s scar starts hurting again after 22 years, it sparks a race against time where the stakes have never been higher.

Much rests on the quality of the lead performances, and they’re wonderful.

As Albus and Scorpius, Rees-Wemyss and McKenna form a teen comic duo which welds black sheep goofiness to genuine warmth and poignancy. Rees-Wemyss gives an intense rendering of teen vulnerability and bravado, rebellion and insecurity, while the fact that this is McKenna’s professional theatre debut is simply astonishing – he has stellar stage presence and adopts a winningly geeky persona that had the audience giggling as if bewitched.

Harry and Ginny, Ron and Hermione (Gareth Reeves, Lucy Goleby, Gyton Grantley and Paula Arundell) all shine, too. There are some tricksy character shifts involved – and it’s amazing how inspired they can be at portraying well-established typologies subtly twisted by circumstance.

Harry Potter devotees will be thrilled by flashbacks that revisit moments and characters from the original series.

The supporting cast absolutely nails many of J.K. Rowling’s most memorable creations, sometimes with the help of costume and special effects – Soren Jensen embodies a hulking, wild-haired Hagrid, for instance, as you’ve never seen him before; Gillian Cosgriff is perfect as Moaning Myrtle; and there are a bevy of cameos including a host of familiar Hogwarts professors, a gruff centaur (Iopa Auva’a), even a talking portrait of a certain headmaster (George Henare).

Gareth Reeves as Harry Potter.Credit:Matt Murphy

One of the charms of the show is that, although it pulls off some extraordinary stage magic – you’ll be terrified by what they’ve done with the dementors, and amazed by some of the costume-inspired spell effects – there’s a restraint to its use.

It’s a show that knows the films had all the CGI you could ever want, so it goes for something more elegant and genuinely theatrical, using performers almost as much as design to create impressive, masque-like sequences that bring Hogwarts to life in all its cape-swirling, wand-wielding glory.

And why would you over-decorate something with a storyline as strong and involving as this one?

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child offers something special: two terrifically paced and dramatically assured plays that let you live for a while in the wizarding world. It’s full of characters you’ll care about, in a magical adventure you’ll boggle at, and the delicate dance between parents and their children is movingly realised by a talented cast.

Yes, it’s pricy, but worth every cent. Theatre of this calibre and lustre will hold every child who sees it, and most adults too, completely spellbound.