Just a few days ago, I read Harry Potter and The Cursed Child and today I’m still trying to
process it. I wasn’t too excited about this play in the first place, because it
involved the next generation and a future for characters that I would have
rather left open to the imagination. Harry Potter’s world is big enough for
more than Harry Potter himself, and even more than just his kids, why tap into
his life again? All was well, and I wanted it to stay that way for Harry and
his family. Alas, it was not to be in The
Cursed Child.
The story of TCC centers
around Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy. Both children are being bullied at
Hogwarts due to their fathers’ legacies -- Albus for being in Slytherin and
‘nothing like a Potter’, and Scorpius for the rumors that he might be
Voldemort’s son. The two form a friendship as outcasts, which causes even more
problems at school and at home. As fathers, Harry and Draco are both hopeless
at connecting with the two kids, and Harry can even be harsh to Albus when
under stress. For some reason I’m still not sure about, Albus decides to go
back in time with Scorpius to save Cedric Diggory, something Harry refuses to
do. Delphi, a young woman claiming to be Amos Diggory’s niece, helps them along
in the quest. She is later revealed to be Voldemort and Bellatrix’s child, and
the use of time travel is a scheme to resurrect her father.
If that last sentence made you say, ‘hey that’s like
fanfiction I’ve seen ,’ then you’re not alone.
Many fans have noticed the similarity and have gone a step
further by calling it bad fanfiction.
Unfortunately, I see their point. Had the summary of TCC been put on a fanfiction site, I would not have been at all
tempted to read it due to the unlikeliness of Voldemort’s daughter and the time
travel plot. There were some good things to come out of the play, which I’ll
touch on at the end of this review. Overall I was disappointed, and I’ve made a
list of some issues with the play that could have been better with sometimes
minor, sometimes huge, adjustments in the writing.
1. TCC needed a new
Big-Bad that wasn’t associated with Voldemort.
Voldemort having a daughter makes no sense in canon
characterizations or timelines (Bellatrix wasn’t noticeably pregnant at Malfoy
Manor in DH). Voldemort was a loner,
relied on no one, didn’t have or want friends, intimacy, or love. He didn’t
want an heir because he was his own legacy, never intending to die. He also
certainly wouldn’t have a child on accident. So why in the world would he have
a daughter? This contradicts everything we know about him. In any case, at the
end of Deathly Hallows, Voldemort’s
story is conclusively finished. A new Big Bad could have done wonders for The Cursed Child. As we’ve seen in the
HP universe, there’s a ton of underlying conflict in the wizarding world. A new evil didn’t have to deal with blood
purity at all. It could have been a house-elf or goblin or centaur sick of
being mistreated. It could be someone with a grudge against the Potters or the Malfoys, or someone within the Ministry. Even if
they still wanted to tell the time travel story of TCC, Delphi is unnecessary. Amos Diggory could have been the sole
catalyst for the plot, and a more believable one since he honestly might have
wanted his son back.
2. Time travel is
messy and should have been left out.
The canon universe is beloved for a reason, and so giving characters
the power to change everything we know about it should have been avoided. All
the time-turners were destroyed in Order
of the Phoenix, and yet two more conveniently turn up over the course of
this play. That’s the coincidence on which the whole plot of The Cursed Child is hinged, and that’s
way too unlikely for devoted fans to believe with so little explanation. It does
not help that the time travelling also leads to several more unlikely
scenarios, such as a Bitter and Cruel Hermione, Death Eater Cedric Diggory, and
something called Voldemort Day. If the writers really wanted to incorporate the
past, it could have been by having Albus and/or Scorpius view the past via
memories or other magic. In any case, I’m sure the future holds a lot for these
kids—there was no need to revisit their fathers’ adventures.
3. Harry could be a
little inept as a father, but not that much.
In the middle of a fight, Albus tells Harry he wishes Harry
wasn’t his dad. Angry, Harry tells Albus that sometimes he wishes he wasn’t his
son, essentially proving Al’s worst fear. It seems pretty unbelievable that
Harry would say this to his child, even at his most frustrated. Perhaps an
angsty fifteen year old Harry might have said that, but not an adult Harry who
is acutely aware of how it feels to be considered a waste of space. Harry’s family
is the most important thing in his life, all he’s ever wanted, so he certainly
knows better than to treat Albus this way.
A lot of the Harry and Albus drama
doesn’t feel justified. Albus is in Slytherin and is bullied in school for not
being like a Potter, and this is the core of his resentment towards Harry. But
in Deathly Hallows, Albus confides
his fear of being placed in Slytherin to his father, and it is Harry who
reassures him. The entire epilogue suggests that at this point, Albus is actually
closest to his father. He trusts him and is easily comforted by him. Harry and
Albus are more similar than not. Albus is not popular at school, but neither
was Harry for 90% of his time at Hogwarts. At times people considered him a
liar, mad, or a show-off just wanting more fame. He was frequently humiliated
by Draco, Snape, and Rita Skeeter. If anything, Harry should be able to connect
more to Albus than to James and Lily, who seem to have more boisterous and
outgoing personalities than Harry ever had. Like most teenagers, Albus might
still be angry and trying to prove himself a little recklessly, but Harry is a
mature, loving father and the writing should reflect it.
4. The books taught
us about friendship, the play should have taught us about family.
Harry was an only child with no family, and so it made sense
that it was a story about friendship. In TCC,
however, the Trio all have multiple kids that are rarely seen. Albus’s brother
and sister, raised together and very near his age, do not actually appear in
the play for more than a scene or two. I’m pretty sure James Sirius Potter
would have a lot to say about the events surrounding Albus, possibly trying to
make the bullying better for his brother but perhaps accidentally making it
worse. Lily could be supportive or bratty or both. Albus’s cousin Rose turns
against him early on in the play, so we never get to see any significant
interactions between them either. I love the Scorpius and Albus friendship, but
there is way more going on in the future generation then we ever get to see.
Teddy Lupin, the whole Weasley clan -- they’d all be front and center in
Albus’s life, so they should have been front and center in the story.
5. Take everything
convenient and get rid of it.
I understand that plays can’t have the nuance of novels, and
that some things must happen far more quickly for the stage. However, the long
list of convenient plot devices in TCC still
read like lazy writing, and each convenience literally holds the story
together. Here are some of the most problematic plot points: Voldemort having a
daughter. Two time-turners existing and being found by the gang after they were
supposedly all destroyed. Harry being an inexcusably bad dad, causing Albus to
be reckless. The parents being unable to find the kids even though they use
tons of trackable underage magic. The kids being able to break into the
Ministry of Magic with very little planning. The blanket from Harry's mom, never mentioned in the books and yet all important to Harry now, and the way Albus communicates with him from the past. Kind
and fair Cedric Diggory becoming a Death Eater just because he was humiliated
once during the Triwizard Tournament. Harry’s transfiguration into Voldemort
wearing off, when a time limit to transfiguration has never been mentioned in
any of the books. These things are just unlikely and don’t fit with what we
already know about magic, the wizarding world, or the characters. They shouldn’t have been used to patch
up holes in the plot.
6. Get. The.
Characters. Right.
This is probably the biggest issue that people had with TCC. Many
of the characters of the series just didn’t seem like themselves. Harry lashes
out at Albus, tries to keep him away from his only friend, and is rude to
McGonagall and Ginny and nearly everyone else at one point or another. Hermione is kind of irresponsible in keeping
the time-turner, and protects it so poorly that two fourteen year old kids can
get to it. Ron is hardly in the book, but when he’s mentioned by the others,
they make him out to be some Fred/George replacement, only there for comic
relief. Ron could be funny and sarcastic in the HP books, but he was never a
prankster, and yet Harry and Hermione refer to several of his pranks as Ron,
‘just being Ron.’ Some argue that the characterizations seem closer to the
movie versions of themselves, but even the movie versions were never quite this
flat and off.
7. There were more
interesting and less forced stories to write.
Overall I think it
was a mistake to do the next generation, and specifically to focus on Albus
Severus Potter. He has two parents whose stories we know essentially in full,
he was named after two of the most controversial HP characters, and he looks
just like his famous father. Al would always unfortunately be either a
rehashing or an obviously intentional departure from Harry, and it was too fine
of a line to walk.
There were a lot of different stories that could have been
told without a need for such convenient or unlikely plot points. These stories
are ones fans have been most interested in seeing, and with conflicts that have
already been hinted at in the books. Stories that basically write themselves.
Some of particular interest to me would be seeing Grindewald vs Dumbledore, the
story of Regulus Black, the love story of Pureblood Andromeda Black and
Muggleborn Ted Tonks, the Marauders, or perhaps even seeing Neville’s
transformation to hero in Deathly
Hallows. If absolutely set on a next generation story, they could still
shift the focus. Scorpius could have
been the main protagonist with Albus as the supportive sidekick instead of the
other way around. Albus’s drama with Harry is less justifiable than Scorpius’s
resentment towards Draco, since Draco’s actions actually hurt others and the
repercussions would still be felt among Hogwarts-age students. This shift would
help a lot, since Scorpius could have a much more tempting reason to want to
change his father’s Death Eater past. Or instead of either boy, learning about
Teddy Lupin would have been my preference. He has metamorphmagus powers which
would have been fun to see a kid/teen use and abuse, and he was in Hufflepuff,
a House that finally would have gotten a chance to be in the spotlight. All of
this stuff would be more exciting, new, and require less mental gymnastics to
make work within the HP universe.
I guess I'll end my list at 7 since it is the most magically powerful number there is.
Though I was disappointed, let me end on a brighter note by
talking about the good stuff to come out of the play. The list is short but
certainly worth mentioning. The Malfoys
were written in character, and we finally got to see Draco turn into a somewhat
respectable human being and father. Albus Potter being in Slytherin and friends
with Scorpius Malfoy was a nice chance for some House redemption. The
Albus/Scorpius friendship feels very sincere and loving, and had the writers
played it less safe it could have been turned into a believable romance (and
many fans will forever see it that way). Speaking of Scorpius, he’s a nerdy,
righteous little hero and some of his lines really show it. Ron’s become the best
dad and uncle of the bunch. I enjoyed the play affirming that in any universe or timeline, Ron and Hermione's love for each other never seems to go away completely. The interactions between Portrait Dumbledore and Harry
were beautiful and probably my favorite part. They highlighted the struggles of protecting kids while letting
them grow, and this dialogue sounded straight from Rowling’s pen.
And of
course, although there were problems, seeing the Golden Trio still together as
friends will always be magical to me.
