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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: A fan's perspective

We asked a teenage Potter fan to give an insight into the excitement surrounding the recently announced West End production

Ever since baby Harry touched down on the unnaturally dark street in Little Whinging,
18 years ago almost to the day, one of the biggest fan bases in the world has been
hung on JK Rowling's every word, waiting for a hint of what Mr Potter might be up to
next.

Despite being slightly too young to be part of the 'growing up with the characters'
generation, I still consider myself one of the biggest HP fans around. I found myself
right in the middle of the target audience as the films got darker, but I was still
young enough to crush on Prisoner­ of­ Azkaban­ Harry without it becoming creepy (we
all know he had the best hair in the third film).

So the announcement of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child coming to the West End in the
summer of 2016 is a weight off a lot of people’s shoulders. We can rest easy knowing
that Queen Rowling did not expect her subjects to live shrouded in darkness, without
any prospect of new material, despite Dumbledore's reassurance that "happiness can
be found even in the darkest of times". (There's also an eagerly-awaited spin off film in the works, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.)

A Potter play has been rumoured in the fandom for years but it was never confirmed
until now and I have to say it has brought particular excitement to we regular theatre goers
who also have a place for little Harry in our hearts. A play is not an entirely alien concept to
Potter fans, who have been chortling away to A Very Potter Musical on YouTube for the past six years (if Cursed Child can come anywhere near the popularity of AVPM then I can safely predict millions of ticket sales, most of which will probably have been bought by me).

Despite the lamenting of those who live outside the UK, they aren't so upset as to avoid speculating about what the play could involve. Aside from Rowling’s adamant tweeting that "it is not a prequel" and subsequent crowning as ‘sass queen’ from one Tumblr user, we haven’t been given much information about the contents of this new instalment to our much-loved series.

Theories I have heard range from a future generation play starring Albus Severus Potter with parallels to Harry’s own parents, to action-filled drama based around the First Wizarding War with a heart­wrenching Lily/James romance alongside. I guess we will have to wait and see but we can rest assured that it will be full of tragedy and any happiness we do get will be bittersweet, with the knowledge of Lily and James's unfortunate departure from our world being the only possible ending to a romantic plot line.

And as for casting, that fact that the last Harry Potter book was published nearly eight whole years ago leaves a lot of my ideal cast members now too old to play the parts they would have been perfect for (eg Ben Barnes as Sirius Black, or Karen Gillan as Lily). WhatsOnStage has some good suggestions in their 'dream casting' feature, but ultimately, as ever, we'll have to place our trust in the capable hands of Rowling and her team.