Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Book • Page 2

It would've been interesting to see what the Butterfly effect would've been if Harry had stepped in to prevent his Mother's death right then (obviously not by killing Voldemort since he had the Horcruxes, but by getting his mother and him out of there. It would be interesting to see what effect that would've had on modern day, in terms of completely wiping out the 7 books we already know and love, and what would Harry's life would've been like if he had constantly been on the run from a still alive Voldemort.

 

I don't know what needs to be spoilered and what doesn't so I'm just spoiling literally everything outside of basic knowledge of the play

 

I was just thinking, at least on page one of the thread, that I should spoiler just about everything. Now that we made it to page 2, it probably isn't necessary anymore. If you come this far and haven't read/seen it, you are effectively trying to ruin it for yourself.

 

Yeah, that's why I'm kind of surprised JKR and the playwrights went there so hard with the time travel stuff, because, like, how could he stop himself. I know he's really selfless and understands the profound effect that it could have, but, yeah idk. It's all so crazy.

 

I think 100% if he hadn't believed Scorpius when Scorpius said there was a world where Voldemort ruled all after the butterfly effect kicked in, Harry would have 1000% intervened. The Harry we knew from the books wouldn't even have thought twice. That's what I thought was so cool about this book, the way they played off Harry's reckless adventurouness in the books with Albus.

 

Also, Harry is kind of a dick in this book.

 

I was definitely thinking that as well and for a while there he is (especially when he tells Albus he wishes sometimes he wasn't his son), but a lot of that comes after the first time travel experience and we don't know how much of his personality was changed by the butterfly effect taking hold.

But Harry has always been incredibly self-centered (which, as he notes here, how could you not be?), a trait that Hermione and Ron often call out in him when it rears its head too much in the books (see Book 4). It's no surprise that these negative traits would be brought out even more dramatically in adulthood.

 

Then, again, Harry also in a lot of ways reminds me of my own dad, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that at all. It was really relatable to me. Perhaps has to stick his foot in his mouth a few times after his tough love went a bit too far, and perhaps doesn't completely understand his son and his motivations, but wanting desperately to reach out and connect and emote with him. It was really touching to me as someone who lost their dad young, to see that relationship blossom by the end of the play.

 

OK I'll try my best to answer with my poor lack of descriptive skills. For time travel they played a ticking clock sound with a muddled background dialogue heard in the background, the actors would clear the stage and then when the time travel was over at the top of the set theyd make the background look like it was bubbling up and then recede back with little waves with accompanying sound effects and then actors would re-emerge. It's really hard to describe now that I'm trying to do it. The first time it happened everyone in the theater started clapping like maniacs and delayed the scene because it was so cool.
On to the bookcase the set for this scene was just the actors and a large piece that included the door they came thru connected to a large bookcase with stairs on the top of it for them to run up and down on. It totally looked like a normal everyday bookcase until literally the actors were swallowed up by it. Some of the books would lift up, almost like teeth, and grab the actor and they'd disappear in it and then eventually a different actor would reappear as the scene played out. There were three separate areas, two in the front and one on the side, the actors went in to or came out of so it was a quite an amazing scene to watch especially since the actors were all mixed up playing different characters thanks to the Polyjuice and the bookcase eventually spitting out the undisguised character.
Finally the duels. this was the most basic of effects kinda like a typical magic trick where they'd point the wand, say a spell and there'd be a spark. When it came to the Unforgivable Curses the stage would light up green.

 

How 'readable' is this thing? Is it clunky reading something that's in script form? (A quick visit to the book store to answer this question for me, but...)

 

I thought it was pretty easy, it honestly went quicker in this format than any of the books. I didn't think it was clunky at all.

 

Very readable. It's 300 pages, but due to the format it's probably read within the time you would normall read 150 or so.

 

Thanks for helping paint the picture. That's awesome that they had to delay the scene due to all the excitement. Sounds really great.

 

Man, I loved everything about this. Pretty much went back and forth from grinning like a moron to fighting back tears the entire time. So incredible to go back to this world after nine years.

 

I made a point to not look at any reviews of the play or script because I didn't want it t damage my relationship with it. I had the same reaction through a lot of the story and don't care about whatever negative crap there is out there about it. Among my small circle of Harry Potter loving friends, and this thread, I've had a lot of positive conversations about it that reinforce my love for the entire series.

 

I'm stoked to see a thread for this! I finished reading it the other day and liked it a lot. I never thought I'd buy a new HP book on the release day again I really enjoyed it. I'm confused about how time travel works in this universe now, but I still found it a lot of fun. I loved the friendship between Albus and Scorpius! I wish there was more Ron in this, but this story wasn't actually about Harry, Ron and Hermione so it's okay! But the scenes where Ron and Hermione weren't married in the alternate universes made me tear up a little. It wasn't perfect but it was fun and I'm just happy to be back in the Harry Potter universe. I hope I get to see the play one day, I'm sure it's amazing to see it come to life!

 

Tickets went on sale at 10am for the next block of shows from May 2017 to December 2017. I'm currently in the online queue and only have about 25000 people in front of me, thank god I've had years of tortuous experience trying to buy tickets to see Brand New that this doesn't phase me. Hopefully I'll have better luck tomorrow trying to get tickets for next weeks shows before I fly home.

 

Does anyone have an idea about when the play may potentially migrate the NY? Don't know if I'll be going to London anytime soon.

 

I doubt I'll see the play but I want to hear the music and I might read the script at some point.

 

At 10am yesterday I got in the online queue to purchase tickets for next year and, after what felt like ages and some mild swearing at the computer, at 6pm I was finally able to buy tickets to see the play again in August 2017 and November 2017. It's crazy to think I've got plans that far away but it's exciting too.

Also purchased the book on my phone yesterday so I can figure out some of the lines I couldn't hear over the clapping of the audience at some points.

 

Finally got around to reading this. After fighting with myself to enjoy it for the first half (my eyes rolled so hard at the idea of saving Cedric, and Voldemort having a child, etc) by the end I was totally engaged and loved it. Love the idea of them having to revisit each task and change something, it added a neat structure and was playing with something we, the audience, were already familiar with. Really well done in my opinion. Harry struggling with fatherhood also makes total sense and is a natural base to build an 8th story on.

Like others have said, I was just really happy to revisit this world. My expectations for Fantastic Beasts are now sky high.

 

My wife and I will be in London over Christmas, and we've been checking for tickets every day to see if any more get put up for sale (returned tickets). Yesterday we finally found a pair, and now I'm even more excited for my trip. I can't wait to see how they pull off some of the scenes after reading the screenplay.

 

This was quite possibly the greatest thing I've ever seen performed.

 

Finally finished reading this yesterday. I thought it was just alright. I think I disliked it more so just because I had just finished re-reading all the books so then reading in script format was very strange. I missed a lot of the details. But, as others have said, it was fun to get back into the whole HP world.

 

Anyone grab tickets?