Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – a gif review

The most hyped up show in London’s West End at the moment is undoubtedly Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre.

Tickets have been booked up more than a year in advance. There’s a script book for Potter fans so those who can’t make it into London can get stuck into the story too. There’s a #keepthesecrets campaign to stop spoilers spreading uncontained across the internet.

But does the play actually live up to expectations?

I went to see it on Sunday October 15, 2017 after booking tickets in August 2016 and I have quite mixed feelings. Here they are, represented mostly in gif form.

JK Rowling And The Failed Pseudonym

You may have noticed the huge story this week in which someone at The Sunday Times worked out that a book released in April, The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith, was in fact written by none other than JK Rowling under a pseudonym.

Some people have been reacting to this in a confused manner- “why would she want to use a pseudonym? Why would the publishers let her when they’re losing potential sales?” To me it seems simple: just look at The Casual Vacancy. There was a massive rush of anticipation around it: “JK Rowling’s first book since Potter! What’s she going to do next?! I hope it’s just as amazing!!!!”

But then the book wasn’t what everyone expected and they were disappointed: The Telegraph deemed it “uneven, and often harrowing.” This isn’t good news when judged against the bestselling children’s series of all time; the harrowing part at least could have been interesting on its own terms. Rowling seemed excited by this new venture, and she was quite promptly shot down as no one seemed to deem it worthy of her, when she was obviously proud of it. I can therefore understand why she might try and avoid this happening again for a while.