Melbourne’s Harry Potter reopening will be a ‘beacon of hope’

The reopening of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Princess Theatre this month after a 343-day hiatus is a “glorious moment”, says co-producer Colin Callender.

Not just for Melbourne, after all the city has been through. Not just for the cast and crew, who have waited so long for their time to come again (and to have work again). But for the international family of Cursed Child productions, all locked down and looking forward to the moment when the stage lights shine again.

L-R: Tom Wren as Draco Malfoy, Debra Lawrance as Professor McGonagall, Gareth Reeves as Harry Potter and Lucy Goleby as Ginny Potter. Credit: Matthew Murphy

“Frankly, [it] is a beacon of hope for us,” says Callender. “From a global perspective, it’s wonderful. And we’re so excited that the Melbourne audience that has been so loyal and supportive of the show will have a chance to see it.”

Melbourne’s brief new lockdown hasn’t been enough to dampen that sense of excitement and anticipation. They are well ahead of schedule in a long rehearsal period, a company spokesperson says. Cast and crew have had to take a break from technical rehearsals at the theatre, which had been scheduled last Saturday and Tuesday and Wednesday this week, but are maintaining daily warm-ups and physical exercise.

Callender, a high-end UK television and theatre producer who lives in New York, expects that themes such as the power of friendship, family and community will have an uplifting resonance for the return season.

“One of the great things about Harry Potter as a character is that he faces obstacles through all the stories and he overcomes,” Callender says.

“Reopening in Melbourne is an affirmation that we can get through these troubled times, overcome hardships that are thrown our way and that the human spirit can survive.

“Seeing the play with a community of theatregoers together will be a very cathartic, healing experience. It’s also enormous fun and very entertaining. Although it explores some real themes, it’s just a glorious escape from the world outside.”

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opened in London in July 2016, moved to Broadway two years later and came to Melbourne in January 2019, followed later that year by San Francisco. It was about to officially open in Hamburg two days before the pandemic hit last year and it shut down. “As producers, it’s been a heartbreaking time but also for all the actors and crew,” Callender says.

Actor Tom Wren, who plays Malfoy in Melbourne, says that as the world has changed, so has some of the play’s nuance.

“As we sat down at the table to read through the script again together for the first time, when we got to parts that deal with loneliness, isolation and parenting through a 2021 lens, it felt very fresh,” Wren says.

“There are parts in this that ring out in a completely new way. The lighting and blocking are all the same but our relationship to the content is different. I’ve done the show for over a year but I’ve never heard certain parts of the play illuminated as they are now. Different parts are singing out in new ways.”

He expects that people who may have been swept away by the spectacle before may now also pick up on different aspects.

“It’s like seeing one of your best mates after not having seen them for a while and you’re still best mates but you’ve gone through something,” he says.

For Callender, it feels like an age since the team first met J.K. Rowling in 2014 to discuss the prospect of a play about Harry Potter’s son.

Once Rowling agreed and the play was written, the whole creative team gathered to be part of its evolution, including three workshops and “cloak and dagger” rehearsals of an obscurely named play so no one would know that the literary and entertainment phenomenon was finally coming to the stage.

He has fond memories of mounting the show in Melbourne and says he and co-producer Sonia Friedman are keen to return when possible with new shows.

“We’d come back to Melbourne and do theatre there in a minute with something else,” he says.

“It was a glorious experience, with a great production team, crew and some of the finest actors we’ve ever worked with.”

• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is scheduled to reopen at Princess Theatre on February 25. Harrypottertheplay.com