Potted Potter: The Unauthorised Harry Experience
Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, The Edge, Auckland
02/05/2009 - 10/05/2009
NZ International Comedy Festival 2007-09, 2013
Production Details
How do you compress all seven books of the Harry Potter series into seventy minutes? Potted Potter has managed such a feat as David and John cheekily take to the challenge in a whirlwind of costumes, ridiculous props, brilliant songs and magic that Hogwart’s wouldn’t believe muggles would be capable of. Auckland audiences can enjoy an interactive game of Quidditch and fire-breathing dragons, the sell-out success of London’s West End and the Edinburgh Fringe is a must see for both Potter addicts and everyone else.
Potted Potter is part of the Nickelodeon Kids’ Comedy Season which provides a programme of entertainment not only uber fun for kids but also safe for parents.
Clean, cheeky and always enjoyable – book now to avoid disappointment and wrath from your kids!
Auckland Season: Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, THE EDGE
Potted Potter – 2nd, 3rd, 9th and 10th May, 1pm & 4pm
Tickets – Adults – $20/Children under 15 – $15 (Potted Potter – $25/$20)
Bookings through THE EDGE – 0800 BUYTICKETS (0800 289842) or www.buytickets.co.nz
For more information on the programme and this year’s festival, visit www.comedyfestival.co.nz
1 hr, 10 mins
Relentlessly outrageous antics
Review by Nik Smythe 02nd May 2009
7 books in 70 minutes? Is it possible? Seven Hairy McLary books maybe, but running a combined total of over 3500 pages the Harry Potter series poses a real challenge to our intrepid young British showmen, the long suffering Potter expert David, who mainly plays Harry, and his clueless cohort John, who covers virtually every other character.
The solution is twofold: firstly, sift the iconic moments out from the myriad finer details, and secondly stir it all up in an anarchic concoction of comedy and slapstick, and above all don’t take it too seriously, i.e. at all.
Adherence to these principles results in a hilarious expedition into J K Rowling’s beloved magical world of wizards and witches, hexes, challenges, creatures, monsters and of course Quidditch. Talked up as a high-tech star-studded extravaganza, it turns out John spent the enormous budget on an amazing dragon puppet that Harry battles in the 4th book… one to watch for!
The determinedly inaccurate characterisations are represented through quick-change garments, wigs and other accessories. Plot-advancing effects are produced with props, projections and (climactic) crazy string.
In accordance with the above second principle, opportunities to jab at loosely (e.g. Equus) or entirely unrelated (e.g. Facebook) subject matter is seized with relish. Crowd favourite highlight has to be the interactive Quidditch match played between two halves of the entire audience and the resultant liquid-based booby prize…
Playing to families over two weekends, Potted Potter doesn’t appear to require in-depth knowledge of the story to be satisfactorily entertaining – my own son, seven next week, hasn’t read the books or seen any movies, but he laughed his head off, mainly at John’s relentlessly outrageous antics.
It’s good that at his age he was too busy laughing at all the gags to concentrate on the storyline. Being the twist-driven epic it is, people who haven’t read them but are intending to would risk serious spoilage watching this show first.
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