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They Changed It (and I don't like it?)
So, the people behind the Harry Potter play made changes when they brought the play to New York, and tomorrow they will officially bring some of those changes to London. Which changes? Who knows. Before they do I want to throw up a post about my thoughts about some of these changes. Because, some of them? Were, in my opinion, mistakes. Sorry, SFP.
This post is I really actively dislike. The things that I notice every show now, that actively bother me as I watch.
1.
They took a Scorpius line away. And it's not a big line, I admit I didn't notice it missing my first show. It took another fan pointing it out for me to realize, but now that it's gone it's like a loose tooth; I can't stop worrying at it. A tiny, stupid part of me hopes every show that Anthony will just screw up and say it anyway. Basically, in the second act, when Scorpius is resisting the dementors alongside Snape, he gives a small speech about how he may benefit from this world under Voldemort, but the world itself is still worse off. And Scorpius' first line for the first two casts in London was "The world changes and we change with it." It's a small line, and it's a mouthful for a fourteen-year-old boy, and it does not, in and of itself, add anything to the scene.
Except...
I think it does add the scene. It's the a line that encapsulates one of the themes of the play, that people are formed by their experiences. Including the "real" world of Harry Potter, we have seen three different worlds and the people that have inhabited those worlds. And as the world changed around them, the people inhabiting those worlds changed. And that's so important! It's a theme that stretches beyond Scorpius himself, and it's a good way to build to Scorpius' next line of "I am better off in this world, but the world is not better." And I'm so annoyed they removed the line! I actually saw Sonia Friedman at stage door during previews and I told her I want this line back, while praising her for the rest of the show so she wouldn't think I was a hater or anything. (She said she would write it down and I SERIOUSLY DOUBT she even bothered. But we notice these things, Sonia. We do.)
2.
I also told Sonia that I missed the voice modulation they gave Delphi. It's hard to "show" that Delphi is a "powerful dark witch" because she's actually quite a small part in the play, overall. We are mostly told how dark she is, and most of that is told by just sort of stating that she's Voldemort's daughter and letting everyone react to that. Which is very frustrating, as one of the themes Dumbledore really tried to impart to Harry was how it is our choices that define us, for good and bad. But that's a different complaint. Mostly it bothers me that we don't get to see her be really powerful except when she fights Harry one-one-one and when Albus points out that she flies without a broom. Which, as it's one of the actually less impressive theater effects, needs that extra reminder from Albus that in the wizarding world this is powerful.
But in the original production she does get this cool voice effect, especially when she says to Harry!Voldemort "I am the Augurey to your Dark Lord." In London the line is said in a way that reverberates through the theater and it gives a creepy sort of gravitas to the moment. Here, poor Jessie Fisher has to build a gravitas all her own, and bless her she really tries. But without that extra effect (in a play FULL of effects) it feels sort of boring to me? Like, oh, ok, great. There's goes Delphi. She's evil, I guess.
3.
These, relatively, are small problems. My ABSOLUTE biggest problem with the new play is the St. Oswald's scene, in which we get to see a wizarding old-age home for a few minutes before Albus and Scorpius come on screen. In the original production, the old witches and wizards prank each other and the nurse/orderly, setting books on fire and sending walkers walking off without their owners. It ends with the (male) orderly/nurse's trousers getting pulled down and him getting jinxed to dance off stage. It's juvenile and hilarious in a silly way. Sure, everyone's being a bit mean, but oh my gosh, can you imagine a bunch of old witches and wizards cooped up in a building together. It's like Hogwarts but worse. They all know lots of spells and they don't particularly want to listen to an orderly or whatever. It's a great premise for mayhem. :D
Here's where I should give some context before I tell you what they've done in New York. I spent one summer in high school working in an old age home near my high school, helping run events and chat with older patients and read books and push wheelchairs and distribute snacks. The people I worked with were (mostly) mentally with it and fun and interesting and kind. The old age home genuinely cared about the patients and worked hard to give them care and entertainment and the staff was cheerful and thoughtful.
It was one of the most sad places I have ever been. There is a scary kind of vulnerability in old age and that summer formed a real, lasting impression on me. I get furious when I hear about elder abuse, which is a rampant, ongoing, GLOBAL problem we don't talk about nearly enough.
And the new St. Oswald's scene? Feels extremely, EXTREMELY uncomfortable to me.
See, instead of the patients pranking each other and the orderly/nurse, the orderly/nurse pranks the patients. It opens with him eating a cookie in front of them, and a few of the patients getting excited about it.
Guys. Guys. Food in old age homes is SO FRAUGHT AND SO DANGEROUS. I was literally trained to check the medical bracelet for every patient before handing them food, because they can and will ask for food that will kill them. And to taunt an old person with food they cannot have is just cruel. The orderly/nurse literally dangles the cookie in front of them. It's just...oh it's awful. He does a fun trick where he makes more cookies appear on the table, but then he does a bunch of mean stuff to them. Like, yeah, ok, the other patients prank each other as well, but the nurse/orderly is the one running the show and it's so very uncomfortable. He gets some very mild prank in the end, something he holds bursts into flame, and then he leaves the scene. He barely gets slap on the write for a scene that feels like real elder abuse, to me.
It's not funny to me. Not at all. And I don't think I imagine that the laughter for the scene is less than that what I remember in London, although I admit it's hard for me to judge because I am really, really biased.
The scene ends when Delphi comes on stage and also abuses one of the residents. Like, ok, Delphi is evil. It's probably a bit more foreshadowing than they meant it to have though, because no one is surprised later when it she reveals herself to the boys, unlike London.
And sure, the scene has some interesting uses of stage magic, different than the ones in London. But it's not funny to me. Thinking about it makes me angry and sad, even now. And I feel helpless about it, because there's nothing I can do. There's no way to mention it to the cast without hurting their feelings, and I happen to really like the actor who plays the orderly/nurse. And they have no control over the play anyway. And as evidenced above, even when my comments were gentle nudges to Sonia Friedman surrounded by gushing praise, the production crew doesn't care.
How did this happen? Did no one take a step back and notice that the entire tone of the scene had changed? I know that none of the original seven are on stage for the scene, and I'm guessing someone was just too excited about their new tricks to really think about whether they served the story. (The final trick, in which a witch is trapped in the couch, is mentioned in the Cursed Child Vogue article, which I have to say is bittersweet reading ever since I saw the trick on stage.)
They changed my show, in some small ways. And you know what? I don't like it.
This post is I really actively dislike. The things that I notice every show now, that actively bother me as I watch.
1.
They took a Scorpius line away. And it's not a big line, I admit I didn't notice it missing my first show. It took another fan pointing it out for me to realize, but now that it's gone it's like a loose tooth; I can't stop worrying at it. A tiny, stupid part of me hopes every show that Anthony will just screw up and say it anyway. Basically, in the second act, when Scorpius is resisting the dementors alongside Snape, he gives a small speech about how he may benefit from this world under Voldemort, but the world itself is still worse off. And Scorpius' first line for the first two casts in London was "The world changes and we change with it." It's a small line, and it's a mouthful for a fourteen-year-old boy, and it does not, in and of itself, add anything to the scene.
Except...
I think it does add the scene. It's the a line that encapsulates one of the themes of the play, that people are formed by their experiences. Including the "real" world of Harry Potter, we have seen three different worlds and the people that have inhabited those worlds. And as the world changed around them, the people inhabiting those worlds changed. And that's so important! It's a theme that stretches beyond Scorpius himself, and it's a good way to build to Scorpius' next line of "I am better off in this world, but the world is not better." And I'm so annoyed they removed the line! I actually saw Sonia Friedman at stage door during previews and I told her I want this line back, while praising her for the rest of the show so she wouldn't think I was a hater or anything. (She said she would write it down and I SERIOUSLY DOUBT she even bothered. But we notice these things, Sonia. We do.)
2.
I also told Sonia that I missed the voice modulation they gave Delphi. It's hard to "show" that Delphi is a "powerful dark witch" because she's actually quite a small part in the play, overall. We are mostly told how dark she is, and most of that is told by just sort of stating that she's Voldemort's daughter and letting everyone react to that. Which is very frustrating, as one of the themes Dumbledore really tried to impart to Harry was how it is our choices that define us, for good and bad. But that's a different complaint. Mostly it bothers me that we don't get to see her be really powerful except when she fights Harry one-one-one and when Albus points out that she flies without a broom. Which, as it's one of the actually less impressive theater effects, needs that extra reminder from Albus that in the wizarding world this is powerful.
But in the original production she does get this cool voice effect, especially when she says to Harry!Voldemort "I am the Augurey to your Dark Lord." In London the line is said in a way that reverberates through the theater and it gives a creepy sort of gravitas to the moment. Here, poor Jessie Fisher has to build a gravitas all her own, and bless her she really tries. But without that extra effect (in a play FULL of effects) it feels sort of boring to me? Like, oh, ok, great. There's goes Delphi. She's evil, I guess.
3.
These, relatively, are small problems. My ABSOLUTE biggest problem with the new play is the St. Oswald's scene, in which we get to see a wizarding old-age home for a few minutes before Albus and Scorpius come on screen. In the original production, the old witches and wizards prank each other and the nurse/orderly, setting books on fire and sending walkers walking off without their owners. It ends with the (male) orderly/nurse's trousers getting pulled down and him getting jinxed to dance off stage. It's juvenile and hilarious in a silly way. Sure, everyone's being a bit mean, but oh my gosh, can you imagine a bunch of old witches and wizards cooped up in a building together. It's like Hogwarts but worse. They all know lots of spells and they don't particularly want to listen to an orderly or whatever. It's a great premise for mayhem. :D
Here's where I should give some context before I tell you what they've done in New York. I spent one summer in high school working in an old age home near my high school, helping run events and chat with older patients and read books and push wheelchairs and distribute snacks. The people I worked with were (mostly) mentally with it and fun and interesting and kind. The old age home genuinely cared about the patients and worked hard to give them care and entertainment and the staff was cheerful and thoughtful.
It was one of the most sad places I have ever been. There is a scary kind of vulnerability in old age and that summer formed a real, lasting impression on me. I get furious when I hear about elder abuse, which is a rampant, ongoing, GLOBAL problem we don't talk about nearly enough.
And the new St. Oswald's scene? Feels extremely, EXTREMELY uncomfortable to me.
See, instead of the patients pranking each other and the orderly/nurse, the orderly/nurse pranks the patients. It opens with him eating a cookie in front of them, and a few of the patients getting excited about it.
Guys. Guys. Food in old age homes is SO FRAUGHT AND SO DANGEROUS. I was literally trained to check the medical bracelet for every patient before handing them food, because they can and will ask for food that will kill them. And to taunt an old person with food they cannot have is just cruel. The orderly/nurse literally dangles the cookie in front of them. It's just...oh it's awful. He does a fun trick where he makes more cookies appear on the table, but then he does a bunch of mean stuff to them. Like, yeah, ok, the other patients prank each other as well, but the nurse/orderly is the one running the show and it's so very uncomfortable. He gets some very mild prank in the end, something he holds bursts into flame, and then he leaves the scene. He barely gets slap on the write for a scene that feels like real elder abuse, to me.
It's not funny to me. Not at all. And I don't think I imagine that the laughter for the scene is less than that what I remember in London, although I admit it's hard for me to judge because I am really, really biased.
The scene ends when Delphi comes on stage and also abuses one of the residents. Like, ok, Delphi is evil. It's probably a bit more foreshadowing than they meant it to have though, because no one is surprised later when it she reveals herself to the boys, unlike London.
And sure, the scene has some interesting uses of stage magic, different than the ones in London. But it's not funny to me. Thinking about it makes me angry and sad, even now. And I feel helpless about it, because there's nothing I can do. There's no way to mention it to the cast without hurting their feelings, and I happen to really like the actor who plays the orderly/nurse. And they have no control over the play anyway. And as evidenced above, even when my comments were gentle nudges to Sonia Friedman surrounded by gushing praise, the production crew doesn't care.
How did this happen? Did no one take a step back and notice that the entire tone of the scene had changed? I know that none of the original seven are on stage for the scene, and I'm guessing someone was just too excited about their new tricks to really think about whether they served the story. (The final trick, in which a witch is trapped in the couch, is mentioned in the Cursed Child Vogue article, which I have to say is bittersweet reading ever since I saw the trick on stage.)
They changed my show, in some small ways. And you know what? I don't like it.