Repost of Thoughts on New Harry Potter play

[author_by_night]

I posted earlier, but I ran out of time and kind of rushed, so this is a more coherent repost. :P Sorry if you get it twice, LJ isn't letting me set the old version to private so I'll try again afterwards. (Also, I'm going to leave this public, so if anyone sees the personal stuff I mentioned, I'd rather that not be brought up. Thanks!)



I have seen mixed responses to this, even within the more enthusiastic ones. The general consensus seems to be "this is awesome! But um, how am I ever going to see it?" Because even if there's a world tour, plays can be pretty expensive, not to mention limited. Fortunately I live 2.5 hours from New York City so Broadway's an option, but even so, the cost is a factor.

It'll be interesting to see how this influences the fandom, too, although there's not a whole lot of fandom left so maybe it won't make much difference. But new canon - I mean actual scripted canon, not Pottermore or whatever - has almost always been accessible in the English language, at least, at the same time. Whereas suddenly you have a play that is extremely limited, because it's probably harder to even pirate a play. (Although honestly, it would not surprise me at all were the script to be leaked.) So I have to wonder how this will all pan out among the fans. (And not just within the fandom, since there were/are a lot of huge fans who never got into the fandom itself.)

Although I do think they'll probably release a film of the play - not a movie version, just when they film it on stage. Or maybe there'll be a companion novel. Who knows.

My second thought is one I often have, which is: how will JKR's novel writing translate to script writing? I'm not saying she can't do it, clearly she thinks she can and maybe she's done a lot of script writing in the past (she's writing the Newt Scamander films, after all), though I have the same exact question there), but there's a huge difference. On the other hand, it's possible she or someone else realized this works better as a play. Maybe it was originally meant to be an 8th book. Which is the other thing a lot of people are wondering - why not just write another book? It very well could be that her more recent material works better in script form.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. I'll probably try and see it at some point, whether I make a trip to London again or see it in New York City.

(I'm sure there'll be spoilers, but I don't really want that. One of my regrets about Wicked is how spoilerified I ended up being. Even the photos from the Defying Gravity scene spoil the song somewhat.)

Comments

[melusinahp.livejournal.com]

JKR is not actually writing the play. It's Jack Thorne, the man who wrote the UK drama, Glue, which was amazing. JKR is just creating the story and supervising.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Oh, see, I did not realize that! Interesting.

[ragnarok-08.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know there was a Harry Potter play until just recently.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Just googled to find the blurb and was...not interested. I mean, I'm not really into HP anymore, but I don't really want to think that Harry's life is still so problematic. Just feels like a grab for cash, because it will make a ton.

JKR isn't doing the script, she just helped with the story.

I feel like a lot of this is happening too soon. Can't we let it lie for a little bit. Wait at least 20 years before releasing spin offs!

not looking forward to it at all

[nevrafire.livejournal.com]

I have too many bad feelings over this that I can't really articulate without yelling.

there's a blogger named Jane Bloggs that said it better than me in the hypable article about this.

specially this:
' like thanks JKR, after Everything Harry's been put let's bring back DARKNESS into his life, and drag his Son into this.'

Why WHY WHY
why did it have to be dark and ominous? why does it have to be something that seems to threatening everyone's hard earned happiness?

I know a 100% happy ending with nothing bad happening Ever again, is unrealistic
but WHY does it have to affect Albus potter who just started Hogwarts? WHY does it have to affect Harry who went through 17 years of unhappiness and hell?

WHY Rowling!
you said Harry deserved a happy life, that's why you didn't kill him
so why make him and Albus go through this?!'

so I'm not happy at all, more heartbroken really

after everything that happened, THIS is the story she wanted to tell?

Re: not looking forward to it at all

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know. I sort of hope it's less that he's Secretly Unhappy and Gloomy and more... he's mostly moved on, and all is well, but sometimes inner demons creep up. You know?

[bitchet.livejournal.com]

I have so many mixed feelings that can basically be summed up by the below. I actually envy the folks that have moved on from HP.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Ha, I love it. :P

[cloudsinvenice]

I hadn't thought about how different this is going to be from when the new books came out, but you're right, it's going to be a whole different ballgame to what we had back then... I'm hoping they'll do one of those broadcast-to-cinemas things (I went to the recent one for the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and I also saw Danny Boyle's Frankenstein a couple of years ago). It's hard to imagine them not doing it since it's essentially a license to print money! And I don't mean that cynically; it would genuinely be weird not to broadcast something with such huge popular appeal, particularly given the parlous state of the arts sector in the UK at the moment.

I am a bit sad that it's not "and they lived happily ever after," but then again, people seldom do - there are always ups and downs, and the downs in Harry's world include dark magic. I think it could actually be comforting to see Harry and his family go through something difficult and painful and come out the other side; it would show his ability to heal and transcend a neglectful, emotionally abusive childhood as he deals with his kids' problems. It also sounds realistic in that having been through something awful yourself doesn't mean you can fix things for your kids easily, but the difference between Harry and the Dursleys is his will to try and his unquestionable love for Albus. It's always interesting to me the way we've grown up with Harry. Now lots of our generation have become parents ourselves, or have other nurturing roles in life, and I rather like seeing his life changing in the ways that ours have changed...

there's a new comment made by the play's writers and I'm not feeling reassured...

[nevrafire.livejournal.com]

there's an interview with the writers in charge of writing the play....

and John Tiffany has THIS to say about what 'he wanted to bring back':

'we had to bring darkness back. There had to be new jeopardy.’

of all the brings to focus on a new story, THAT's what they want to bring back?
After harry suffered for 17 years of it?

*cries*

[secondmezzanine.livejournal.com]

I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it. In terms of access to content, I dislike the idea in a way. I want to love it, but JKR is all about inclusion--we've all gone to Hogwarts together, etc. And theatre can be very exclusive. I am lucky enough to be able to travel to NYC every few years to see a show, but even then, it's difficult to pull off, and I imagine tickets to these plays will be in high demand. At the same time I don't begrudge her wanting to try something in this medium; it's her right and she doesn't owe me anything in that sense. And perhaps I'm a hypocrite, since I fully enjoyed the Wizarding World, and there are tons of people who are unable to go to it. On the other hand, the Wizarding World doesn't really create new content and add to the overall HP story. So... hmm. Not sure.

Another part of me is always worried that adding MORE content to my favorite things will ruin it. Kind of like how even big fans of Star Wars tore apart the newer films (and in that case, I think the new-new films can only help). If the content is great, I'm all for it. If I don't like the content much... well, I don't know. I'm just always afraid my beloved HP will be tainted somehow. :)