All seven books of the Harry Potter series from The Philosopher’s Stone through to The Deathly Hallows performed live on stage in just over an hour? Challenge accepted!
Potted Potter: The Unauthorised Harry Experience, A Parody by Dan and Jeff is exactly what it says on the tin – a trip through the Potter-verse at an absolute gallop, hitting just the major plot points, but stopping along the way for lashings of slapstick, oodles of improvised irreverence and the odd beach ball tossed into the audience. What’s that? You don’t remember seaside toys featuring prominently at Hogwarts and beyond?
In that case you probably also don’t recall Ron Weasley talking like an Ali G rude boy, Hermione Granger sporting blonde plaits and a straw boater or Voldemort giving away just how evil he is by prancing around the stage in a pair of red plastic devil horns.
It’s certainly true that Potted Potter strays from the original intent and format of the books and films, but in its place we have two young men diligently giving it their all in a fast-paced, furiously funny romp, in which Scott Hoatson plays Harry Potter and the indubitably versatile Brendan Murphy plays everyone else – and throws in some puppetry, madcap crowd work and ample ad libbing for good measure.
It’s all very silly and endlessly entertaining, and Hoatson makes for a lovely straight man to Murphy’s wildly inventive clowning and comedy.
Read: Hairy Potter – selling a show when the author is persona non grata
True Potter aficionados, though, may be left a tad unsatisfied. There’s something that happens with long runs of two-hander or solo shows of this ilk. As the years go by (and the roots of this production go back nearly two decades) the performers will throw in a bit of business to keep the whole thing fresh and fun for themselves. If that business gets a strong reaction, it gets incorporated into the show, until eventually there’s more extraneous business than original material.
This doesn’t detract from the entertainment value for most audiences, but anyone expecting something with a little more Harry heft should just adjust their expectations at the door.
Following shows in Canberra and Sydney earlier in April, Potted Potter will be performed at the Athenaeum Theatre Melbourne until 5 May before touring to Adelaide Festival Centre 10-12 May and Perth State Theatre Centre 23-26 May.
