corona crisis

The Hamburg show is now cheaper
The “Harry Potter” theater enchants with the new edition

By Linn Penkert
12/19/2022, 18:49

With critics and audiences, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” can continue the success of books and films on the theater stage. From 19 February, the play will be staged in Hamburg in an abridged version. Can it keep up with its five and a half hour predecessor?

In 2011, almost twelve years ago, the “Harry Potter” film series was completed with “The Deathly Hallows – Part 2”. But anyone who thinks that the story of the eponymous wizard and his friends in the fight against dark magic has been told to the end is wrong. Because instead of ending her novels with victory over Lord Voldemort, author JK Rowling has written a short epilogue. This takes place 19 years after the great battle for Hogwarts wizarding school on the famous 9 ¾ platform – and introduces the main character Harry Potter as an adult family man and his eleven-year-old son, Albus Severus.

Precisely from that epilogue, the two British producers Colin Callender and Sonia Friedman developed the idea of ​​a theatrical show. “We found out that JK Rowling didn’t close the door, she consciously or unconsciously left it open,” Callender explains in an interview with ntv.de in New York. “And we were right. She had a lot more to say about all of this.” It was important for everyone involved not to retell the films for the stage, but to immerse themselves in a completely new story with familiar and new characters.

“One of the challenges from the beginning was to write a play that both Harry Potter fans would enjoy without looking down on them, and that would still appeal to non-Harry Potter fans, i.e. people who have no read the books or movies know they are accessible,” says Callender. “It was a balancing act because on the one hand you have to explain who the different people are and you need a backstory to understand what’s going on on stage. But if you explain too much, you bore those who read the books and know movies.”

A real highlight

The result is impressive: the centerpiece of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” by Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany is Albus Severus, a classic troubled middle child, shy and full of fear, in his first year at Hogwarts in It was wicked prestigious Slytherin house to come. The fact that his father is the most famous wizard of all time doesn’t ease the pressure on him. On the Hogwarts Express, he befriends Scorpius Malfoy, the son of his father’s former nemesis, Draco Malfoy. The two boys quickly become the school’s biggest misfits and turn the world of magic upside down in a daring attempt to change the past.

In addition to the gripping storyline, however, it is the many individual components that make the show a unique and magical show that you can hardly blink an eye on. “We’re not a high-tech show, but there’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes to make it easy on stage,” Callender explains. Planning the show involved sound and lighting designers, costume designers, make-up artists, set designers and motion directors from the outset, all working in harmony to make the illusions magical – ‘as ​​simple as they are’.

With audiences and critics alike, the eighth story in Rowling’s saga has continued the success of the books and films on stage. In the UK, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child won nine Olivier Awards, including Best Play and Best Direction, following its premiere in July 2016, making it the most awarded production of all time. On Broadway in New York in 2018, it became the most awarded production of the season with a total of 25 Tony Awards in six categories. And also in Hamburg, where the German version of the story was staged as a non-English-language production for the first time since December 2021, it recently received the renowned German Live Entertainment Award (LEA) for “Show of the Year 2020/ 2021” .

Now more accessible to fans

However, the breathtaking story of Albus Severus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy, who embark on a perilous downward spiral, also had its drawbacks. Because with a playing time of five and a half hours on two game days, the production is not only extremely long, but also unaffordable for many fans with a proud ticket price of around 200 euros. Just arrived from outside with extended family? Hard. Director John Tiffany and author Jack Thorne then used the crown lock to “look at our work again with fresh eyes and peer into it.” The goal: to make the story more accessible to the public, to shorten it as much as possible and “preserve its heart, soul and magic”.

“The decision was not about cost reductions due to the pandemic. We are actually spending much more now,” emphasizes Matthias Lienemann, Managing Director of Mehr! Theater in Hamburg on ntv.de. Because despite the cut, the actual staging of the show and its components remain the same. In other words, some popular characters are missing. However, as many performers played dual roles, the one-off requires a larger cast to save time. The crew is also expanding behind the scenes, “because changes to costumes or on set have to happen more quickly,” explains producer Colin Callender.

The new three and a half hour version has been running for several months in the United States, Australia and Japan and is enjoying great success. At most! The one-off will celebrate its theatrical premiere on February 19, 2023. Callender can reassure Harry Potter fans who now fear the cuts could undermine character development. “In fact, I think the opposite is true because some key scenes are now sharper than in the longer version.” Some parts of the story were “leaner” now, according to Callender. “The difficult relationship between father and son and the deep friendship between the two boys”.

The benefits of the shortened show were immediately apparent, reports Callender: ‘There is no doubt that both sides have put up something of a barrier to entry for some members of the public. We see many more families now, because they save much more time and money with a show.” With a new price of 59.90 euros per ticket, “Harry Potter and the Enchanted Child” can be an experience for the whole family next year.