Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - SPOILER THREAD

Chronologically speaking, where in Voldemort and Bellatrix's timeline did they conceive Delphi? Is she not meant to be roughly the same age as Scorpius and Albus? Who were conceived post-Deathly Hallows and Delphi's parents' deaths?

Forgive me, it was November when I saw the plays, I can't recall if this was addressed?

Frozen egg and sperm? Surrogate?

Voldemort's sperm. Ew.

Yeah me too.

Apparently it was meant to happen before the Battle of Hogwarts.

First picture of the new cast in the show

Sourced from Tumblr
Annabel Baldwin is Delphi. April Hughes is Myrtle. Tom Mackley is Karl Jenkins and Dudley Dursley. Haven't seen anything about the others yet. There seems to be a very good reaction to Samuel Blenkin as Scorpius

I'll be seeing this for the third time next Saturday. I can't wait to see the new cast!

Interesting. The films have mucked it up then by having Bellatrix there when Snape kills Dumbledore then. She's not exactly the maternal type though so she could've had he baby just before that and abandoned it to be looked after by Nagini or something.

Finally, finally a week later sitting down to compose some thoughts here...

So I went in spoiler free. I had picked up that it has some time-travel in it, but I avoided knowing anything else much. I was so glad of this, and weirdly it wasn't what I expected at all. I was expecting something a) a lot more 'film like' in terms of visuals/effects (a bit like a Disney theme park style show I guess I was thinking...not that I've been to one) and b) I wasn't expecting it so deeply rooted in the books/older universe.

So I was both surprised and LOVED it. I've said elsewhere that no, it isn't the best written script in the world, but then JKR didn't write the best written books in the world, what she did do was build a world that was magical and create characters we love. And that's what I felt about Cursed Child. Added to that the effects were true 'theatre magic' and in some cases the fact that 'the wires show' (to borrow Tony Kushner's phrase) was what I adored! It didn't pretend to be anything but theatrical magic, but for that it was actually more magical.

I did really like the story. Yes it's fan service and fan fiction. I know fanfiction well, though I don't know HP fanfiction specifically. And I'm sure there are a million 'Volde's child' fics out there, along with 'Harry Grown Up' fics and some of which will be better stories. BUT they aren't theatrical pieces, and they have the luxury of 1000s more words and imagination. So I'll take this for what it is. I was also worried it would be written for 'the kids' but actually it's really aware that the audience is like Harry grown up. And I loved the angst filled anxious Harry of adulthood. Of course Parker was brilliant at it, and I utterly fell in love with his Harry (and wanted to give him a big hug).

My favourite part of this however was just being genuinely surprised at the plot- I joined in the little gasp when they mentioned Neville, and although if I'd thought about it I could have seen the whole return of Voldemort coming, I'd kinda given myself over the story and just let myself get carried along with it and so it was a genuine 'ooh ahh' type experience. And it was genuinely one of the most purely enjoyable theatre experiences of the year.

I was so glad I got to see the original cast, I loved Jamie as I expected, but everyone really was great (I share a few reservations about Norma's diction/presence which at times didn't quite reach me in the outer reaches)but I felt there was a real relationship between all the leads.

As I say I loved the effects, one of my favourites was the wand battle between Harry and Malfoy where they're literally being thrown about by people in blacks, so effective!

All in all a great day out, and I'd love to see it from better seats and see the new cast!

maybe bellatrix really wanted the basilisk in her chamber of secrets instead

maybe slyther-in is altogether something quite different..

Zak97 - are you Steven Moffat, by any chance?

I can finally post in this thread as someone who's actually seen the show as my year's wait ended this week! I wasn't completely spoiler-free (I knew about Delphi) but I didn't know the details of the story.

Overall I loved it - I thought Part 1 was for the most part outstanding, as was the first third of part two. After that, I'm afraid it descended well and truly into bad fan fiction territory for me. I enjoyed the intricacies of how Albus solved the problem of getting a message to Harry, but apart from that (which I guessed before it happened) I found the whole climax of the story pretty contrived and not as thrilling as I'd hoped. That may have been partly because by that stage Delphi was just getting on my nerves, she felt like too much of a caricature, and it was all over rather too quickly given we'd been building up to it for so long. I did like the last scene though.

Overall, I was really impressed with the special effects, particularly the entrance to the Ministry and the Polyjuice Potion. From the balcony I could easily see how the former was done and I can guess how the latter is done, but it didn't detract from the magic. I was only slightly disappointed with the spells - not every spell requires a flash of light! I thought the Dementors were very well done.

I was also really impressed by how faithful they were to how the characters have been portrayed, especially Hagrid, Snape and McGonagall. Myrtle was spot on as well and had me in stiches! I was surprised by how funny it was overall - I think at times it went too far, particularly with Scorpius, but mostly it was well placed humour. I don't think the trolley witch scene on top of the train worked at all though, that was completely unnecessary.

And as a complete Harry Potter geek growing up I very much appreciated all the little details, like the reference to Neville, explaining Astoria's story etc. I only spotted one error in terms of the canon, which was extremely minor and irrelevant so it didn't bother me in the slightest.

Plus I saw it all for £40 - row A of the balcony is a bargain, with a bit of leaning you can see pretty much everything (especially when the seat behind is empty as it was for me!) and have a great view of the writing on the ceiling.

I'm not sure I'd rush to see it again - I think a lot of the magic of it will be due to it being my first time seeing it, but I'm definitely glad I saw it before I read the script, as I expect it translates much better live than on paper!

Saw it finally today, both parts. I have somewhat mixed feelings about certian aspects, but the overall show was pretty spectcular.

The effects were incredible, as was the staging, with choreography intertwined, as well as the use of lighting. The Dementors stole the show they were stunning, as was the scene with the writing on the wall! It almost became an issue though, for the play itself.

Now I have been a fan of Harry Potter since the beginning, love it, still do. I think that there are several moments I found myself saying "god, I can't wait to see what they do next with the staging" that, for me, kinda read as a sign of slight weakness. I can only aliken it to Curious Incident, where the staging and dazzle can hide some of the slight flaws of the script. Not to say either is weak as a show, I was amazed by both, but just a note haha.

Overall, the cast were fantastic and really carried the show bar one or two. I had issues with the makeup of Voldemort. I know you couldn't do much else, but it read a bit too fake looking for me, and stood out for that. The girl playing Delphi, it was a bit too "I' a villian, I will talk in low yet raised tones and move my arms slowly and walk at a slow pace" for me. She was a great performer, especially in Part 1, but I lost a bit of that in Part 2. And I really didn't like the guy playing Hagrid and the Sorting Hat. I thought it was just character based because I didn't like the overall way the Sorting Hat worked and what they did with it, but then when he was Hagid, I was like "nope, its him too i'm not buying".

Please don't read this as I didn't like it, these are obviously just small quibbles from a Potter fan. Overall, I had a great day, and would go back in a year or so.