Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - SPOILER THREAD

My seats were at the back of the stalls so could see his whole, slow walk through. I just don't think it had the effect they were hoping for. 

Could have been worse - at least he didn't have to ask an usher for the way out.

Yeah, I'd agree with that. I think it's a shame we didn't see any of James or Lily's school life, to have the comparison between their (presumably successful) schooling career and Albus' broken one.

The whole young Lily/James thing was a problem, I think. On the one hand you've got Harry saying he's not sure how to be a good dad because his own father died when he was so young; on the other he appears to have a perfectly good relationship with James and Lily. It's only whiny, self-centred Albus that's a problem (for obvious reasons. If I was Harry, I wouldn't be beating myself up about that, frankly).

Picking up on a couple of other points: there seems to be some confusion over what I said about Rose/Hermione - quite possibly my fault, it's been a busy few days, sorry! I don't think I ever bothered about what Rose's peers made of her - I only mentioned them when saying Hermione was softened a bit as a character by having an awareness of how her peers viewed her. And that Rose seemed to be without any softening quality/vulnerability, so came across as a cocky pain in the neck.

I didn't have an issue with the delivery of the spells, but my goodness they need to practise putting their wands away. (Steady on Monkey, I know what you're like!) To a (wo)man, it seemed that they all had a couple of ineffectual attempts to look cool while fumbling by their sides, then eventually gave up and glanced down to find the right spot to stash it. Did Clint Eastwood step out on set before mastering how to replace his gun in his holster? I bet he did not. ;-)

re Voldemort: I thought it worked really well the night I was there! Loved the way the stairs folded out from the stage. Normally in cases like that, stairs are there from the start so you know at some point, someone's gonna walk down them. The element of surprise this different approach allowed the show was great. There was a bit of a gasp when Voldemort walked out on stage. I assumed he would then just stop at the front of the stage, but to see the stairs appear...there was a genuine frisson among the audience. I didn't know what the collective sound of a couple of hundred people leaning forward in the dress circle sounded like until that moment, anyway! For me, I got that sense of how terrifying it would be in the wizarding world for Voldemort to walk amongst you. So it rounded off nicely all the other 'bringing the audience into the action' moments - Dementors, projections and all.

Preach, Baemax. ;-)

It did make me giggle because they were pulling off umpteen magic tricks rather well - it seemed odd it was a relatively simple thing that foxed them!

They probably just talk about politics, you can derail ANY unwanted conversation at the moment by just bringing up the P word.

Someone remind me what the Transfiguration bit was? Turns out seeing both in one day sort of chases out the brain's ability to remember clearly (or it does for me, anyway).

WAIT IGNORE ME I'VE FIGURED IT OUT yes, I agree it was WAY less smooth than the Polyjuice effect and didn't even look like it was just mishandled on the day, it looked clumsily designed too.

The polyjuice scene was well done, I think I know how they did it as you could see that it wasn't the arms of the actors so I assume they're hidden behind them. 

I was impressed with the beginning sequence where they change from normal clothes to uniform. 

That's funny, that didn't impress me in the slightest, annoyingly I saw it coming before it happened because of how odd they looked with the excess material around their waists. Had I not spotted the odd looking costumes I am sure I'd have been very impressed though. However I was impressed with the first time we saw them going into the Ministry of Magic. 

Back to polyjuice vs transfiguration it just looked way smoother.

I went to see the play last Saturday and there was one joke near the end of part 2 that I didn't get.

When the adult characters travel to Godric's Hollow to go back in time to meet Albus and Scorpius, they start talking about how the village has become very popular with muggles and tourists. Draco then looks into the distance and says "Is that a farmers' market?!"

Cue HUGE laughter and applause. Probably the biggest audience laugh of the whole play.

But I didn't get the joke at all and neither did my brother who I was with.

Can anyone explain? It has been bugging me massively!

Got to admit that made me wonder as well.

There's certainly not a big in joke within "Potterverse" about farmers' markets.. I can only presume it's such a clash of worlds that it causes such a laugh (the idea that this fabled wizarding village has a muggle market it in). Possibly also at that stage the audience want something to laugh at as the tone has got darker, so people latch on to anything vaguely amusing.

I'd happily hear better opinions than mine though!

I assumed it was just mocking middle class life? I was a bit surprised by the reaction the night I went, too, though - no applause but a big laugh - so perhaps there's something I'm missing!

Absolutely definitely - I would go so far as to suggest there is some kind of laser (or otherwise) sensor so the fire is appropriately cut before the person reaches it, then resumed by a pressure sensor being deactivated when they walk off. Strikes me as far too much of a potentially dangerous thing for them to not have deployed technology to prevent burns.