THE CURSED CHILD
By J. K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany
~Book Review~
*Warning! Major
Spoilers Ahead!*
MULTITUDES SWARMED OVER THIS SCRIPT, eager to relive the magic and wonder of J.K. Rowling’s much
beloved Harry Potter series. I still remember the day Book One hit the shelves
of our classroom, and our 6th grade teacher read Chapter 1 to us. By
that afternoon I had already checked out a copy from the library and devoured
it page to page.
It had everything
I enjoyed in a fantasy book back then. Sympathetic protagonist with tragic back
story who may not be so ordinary? Check. A magic school with a hat that sorts
you into houses? Awesome. A secret wizarding world hidden amongst the alleys of
London where you can buy things like wands and owls? Double check. A nasty but
oddly endearing school rival? Sign me up. Two loyal best mates to stick it to
school rival and go on crazy adventures with you? I’m liking this. A Hagrid?
Triple check. Don’t even get me started on the unpleasant but riveting antics
of Snape!
Years later in
England I may have been one of those ultra fans who dressed up like a witch to
attend a Harry Potter release party for The Goblet of Fire. I let that slip to my
spouse recently and he said with a look of terror: “You never told me this before
we got married.”
Yeah, you’re stuck
with me now, buddy.
So in today’s
gritty surreal day and age where the times I could get lost in a Rowling book are
a distant golden memory, I was guardedly cautious to read The Cursed Child. I
finished it, too, in a day like I had The Sorcerer’s Stone.
Unfortunately it
was for all the wrong reasons.
This is a play, so
it is all dialogue based. I thought for Harry Potter I could handle that, but I
realized the reason I fell in love with this wizarding world is because of the
world-building. Each book would introduce something new, like the chocolate frogs,
to gillyweed, to the Marauder’s Map, to the Whomping Willow, to time-turners for
Hermoine to make it all of her classes, and it all left me thinking “Clever.
That is so clever! Love it!”
This play is more
of a homage to all of the past magical objects and plot devices of Rowling’s
world but doesn’t introduce anything new (unless you count the Trolley Witch *shudders*).
It focuses on family relationships for the Potters’ child Albus and Draco’s
child Scorpius to learn that they are fine just the way they are.
Albus is having a
woe-is-me crisis because he is the son of the legendary Harry Potter who ends
up in Slytherin. (First world problems.) Scorpius is suffering as well under
rumors that he is the son of Voldemort. In a well-intentioned attempt to change
things for the better, they steal a time turner from the Ministry of Magic and
go back in time to stop Voldemort from killing Cedric Diggory. Naturally,
neither of this pair is Hermoine Granger, so they end up dooming the future to
a number of frightful Voldemort eras until Albus and his father Harry can
reconcile.
*Too* much is
crammed in. Every character, even Ludo Bago, gets some dialogue time, and the
result is that no character outside of Albus, Scorpius, and Harry feels
developed. There is particularly a lack of Rose Granger-Weasley (hey, if they’re
going to pay homage to everything from Polyjuice potion to dementors then might
as well have a heroic trio). It felt like doing fan service to the events of
the old series as a whole and every character gets their cameo—but the result is an
oversimplified jumble of events rather than a cohesive story.
The villain (and I
liked the idea of Voldemort having a daughter!) dampens the whole message of
the play: that you have the freewill to choose who you want to be. Because of
course, any child of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named must choose to be unequivocally
evil. After we’ve seen that being in Slytherin doesn’t mean you’re destined to
be a dark wizard and being the son of Draco Malfoy doesn’t mean you are a
douche (love Draco’s growth, by the way! He felt more mature than Harry –
fatherhood has been good for him!), then along comes Voldemort’s daughter and
she is bad to the bone. (At one point, Albus tells Scorpius he can’t be the son
of Voldemort because he can’t believe Voldemort would ever have a kind child,
which is downer news for the all the Voldemort spawn wandering around out
there). It would have more hit the message home and been entertaining if it was a villainous Hufflepuff on the
loose. Or, for this story’s sake, an evil Gryffindor.
(Love that my
computer spell check has all of the House names in its dictionary, by the way.)
Anyway, if you are
going to read this play, which, if you grew up with Harry Potter and the gang,
then you probably are, those are my fair warnings. Don’t expect too much. Don’t
get too hung up on all the time travel inconsistencies. Don’t pout too much
when your favorite character doesn’t get much stage time. Just absorb, smile at
the witty lines, and take a moment to fondly remember the Triwizard Tournament,
Diagon Alley, Hogwarts, Platform Nine and Three Quarters…then move on.
Recommended for
fans of: reminiscing about the good old Harry Potter days
Upcoming Book
Review: For 2018, stay tuned for reads on new genres in addition to
fantasy/paranormal including non-fiction!
