A Cussed Letdown

One of the better terms to describe Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is “author-sanctioned fan fiction.” In reality, the eighth story—19 years after the release of the first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone—is fan fiction that has been blessed by J K Rowling. It has been written by Jack Thorne, but the story has been conceptualised by Rowling, with the help of Thorne and John Tiffany. It’s safe to assume then that Rowling must have had the final veto as well, when it came to wrapping up the two-part West End stage play, for she is the ultimate authority of the creative process.

When reading the play script, it is best not to expect it to be a literal eighth story in the Harry Potter saga, hoping it to continue with that magical experience where the seventh book ended—for the simple reason that this is a play and not a novel. If we are to believe that the medium is the message, then it must be read differently; there will be no beautiful paragraphs describing the many eccentricities of the magical world, no third-person voice to narrate what’s happening in the background, no descriptions of the body language of the characters.