By Rupert Hogan-Turner
I walked into Her Majesty’s Theatre and it reminded me of going to see the Wiggles with my younger cousin. Kids running around, while adults either so confident of their children’s safety or beyond apathy chatted amongst themselves. I sat skeptically wondering to myself if this was in fact the right place. The lights went up and the show began and within thirty seconds the first of hundreds of uproars of laughter began.
The two stars, Gary Trainor and Jesse Briton, played the audience so perfectly. In the initial scenes they pandered largely to the kids, getting the easy laughs while still throwing an adult sized joke through very regularly. The play was essentially a challenge placed upon Gary and Jesse to perform and explain all seven volumes of Harry Potter, underlying themes and all, in seventy minutes. What came of it was magic comedy.
Largely the humour stemmed from Gary being the Harry Potter master (while even looking just a teensy bit like Daniel Radcliffe) and Jesse being the bumbling sidekick who knew nothing of the series. This tried method of comedy flowed effortlessly on stage, at some moments you actually got the feeling that Jessie had no clue what he was doing. They were the typical odd couple.
Full credit to the stars who managed to pull off an hour and a half of blissful entertainment with unlimited enthusiasm. There was a massive delivery of guffaws and giggles as the two absolutely played to and subsequently owned the crowd. The writers and director deserve credit too for this outrageously silly but fervently accurate parody of the seven books. The play offers not only bottomless buckets of laughter but startling revelations into the Harry Potter franchise. Not one to be missed.
Kryztoff Rating 4.5K
Recent Comments