“All seven Harry Potter books in 70 hilarious minutes!” says the ad. Well that was not the case, except the hilarious part…if you’re under 13 years old.
In the tradition of shows like The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, The Complete History of America and The Bible: The Complete Word of God, all of which have been performed in Hong Kong, Potted Potter attempts to tell the story of all seven Harry Potter books in a series of goofy comedy sketches.
This time, however, it comes in the form of an eager expert (performed by Gary Trainor) trying to present the highlights of the books while a wicked faker (performed by Jesse Briton) sabotages each and every effort.
This parody, written and created by Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner, starts with Briton not getting the right set or the troop of fine actors needed to play the more than 300 characters in J K Rowling’s books. In lieu of this, the audience has to deal with Briton’s silly antics as he tries to be everything and everybody, while Trainor gets cross and indignant.
The silliness factor of the show is off the charts. It is not a show of sophisticated wit or intelligent satire. For the adults, it is “interesting” at best. For the kids, however, judging by their loud and boisterous laughter, it must be completely brilliant!
The highlight of the show is, of course, Quidditch, the competitive game played by the rival factions of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The audience is divided into two competing teams as they battle it out for a beach ball.
For a moment, the kids were able to release some of their pent-up energy to good effect. For a moment, the scene reminded me of Russian clown Slava Polunin’s Snowshow, which was presented in 1997 in Hong Kong, to mediocre effect.
Overall, this is clearly a children’s show. Bring your kid to it and hopefully, you will be blissfully content to see them laugh so heartily.
Potted Potter is playing at the HKAPA, Drama Theatre in Wanchai, September 23 – 28. For more information, click here.
A version of this article was previously published on HKELD, Hong Kong’s number one blog for all things theatrical. They tell you what’s on, where it playing, and what’s good on their mission to bring artists and audiences together.
Words: Satoshi Kyo
