A Harry Potter play...?

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

So it looks like there's going to be a sequel to Harry Potter, and it's a play. It's going to be mostly about Harry's son.

It seems like the biggest concern among most of the people on ONTD is the relative exclusivity of the medium, since a play is much more difficult to make time and money for than a book, and even if it travels, it probably won't reach every country where Harry Potter fans live.

There's also a concern that the story seems a bit cliche, and one very real danger is that it will come across as too similar to the main series. It's my experience that a story that attempts to introduce a "second generation" very often just ends up reusing the same tropes and devices that had been a mainstay of the series from the beginning. Another problem I can see arising is that the play might be caught in a conflict of how much time to spend on the older characters that we've been following for seven books and how much to include about the new generation. Since Harry Potter started as a children's series, any modern children will probably have an easier time relating to little Albus Severus and might be bored by spending time in the presence of adults like Harry; on the other hand, adults who go to see the play might be hoping to see characters they grew up knowing and loving, like Hermione or Neville, and so might be bored by the new characters they haven't had a chance to build up a relationship with.

In any case, it's hard for me to see how this play will necessarily improve upon the mythos (because it's not like we were particularly clamoring for MORE of Rowling telling you how to interpret her characters), though I suppose anything's possible. I really REALLY hope that the "curse" doesn't have to do with Snape's ebilness--leave the poor man alone why don't you!

You can find more information on Twitter here.

Comments

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Since there are writers other than Rowling I guess there's a chance the play will be decent, unlike the original series.

(Can you imagine a play based on Deathly Hallows? With the climax being a ten minute monologue by the 'hero' while the villain stands idle and just passively listens? I can't. Neither could the scriptwriter for the movie version of the book. But I digress.)

It seems like the biggest concern among most of the people on ONTD is the relative exclusivity of the medium

I wonder what the 'security' will be like? Men in long coats and wearing sunglasses walking up and down the isles looking for video cameras? (Do they do that sort of thing for plays?) :-)

I know, right?

[librasmile.livejournal.com]

I am NOT a fan of next gen Potter fan fic - mostly because the epilogue showed us their parents hadn't learned a damned thing from the first story cycle and their children were getting ready to repeat the nonsense all over again thanks to them. The only interest I would find in something like this might be if it was a musical with REALLY good songs. I'm not a fan of the Broadway style of singing unless the songs are just so good that the music overcomes that frequently contrived style. Humor usually saves that. In any case, the other reason I might want to see it is IF Rowling actually tries to correct what she did in the epilogue. I came away not liking ANY of the people who survived, except maybe Draco and that's because he didn't say anything so I couldn't condemn him for anything. But if we see the older generation's chickens coming home to roost in the sins of their children, I think I can hitch onto that ride.

However, that having been said, I think there is a contingent of people out there who LOVE next gen fan fic so that may be the audience right there. And for the reasons you mentioned above, it's worth a gamble. If they play it right it could become a Christmas staple across the country and Rowling will be on the way to making her next billion with her morally dubious writing. Gotta keep that machine going...

Re: I know, right?

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

I came away not liking ANY of the people who survived -

As someone who hated the primary canon pairings I can't muster any interest in a next-gen affair either. The kids don't interest me and incorporating their parents won't do it for me either.

Gotta keep that machine going...

Sadly the HP juggernaut was so successful it will never stop. Rowling chose her consumer base wisely. All of those innocent kids who had HP read to them by their parents, went to the book sales and movies, who just don't care about the actual literary failures riddled through the series ... who in turn will read the books to *their* children and so on. It will never end. *cries*

[t0ra-chan.livejournal.com]

I have zero interest in seeing this play, because I don't give a shit about any of the kids.

Why is Alsbus Severus always the only one of them that matters? Because he looks like Harry? James and Lily also have to deal with being the kids of The Boy Who Lived, not just him. Why even give Harry 3 kids, if only one of them actually matters.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Why have 4 Houses in Hogwarts if only 2 matter? Why invent a curriculum for Hogwarts if nothing learned in class matters? The questions never end.

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

The other two houses do matter. Somebody's gotta provide the Gryffindors' redshirts, after all.

[jana-ch.livejournal.com]

Al Sev is the only one who matters because Jim Siri and Lily Lu are obviously intended to be duplicates of their paternal grandparents, who were, in the official canon view, well-adjusted Gryffindors with no issues to resolve. Al Sev is the oddball—the one who feels he doesn’t quite fit into the One Big Happy Gryffie Family. He is therefore the one with a story to tell, as he struggles with learning that, deep down, he’s just as much a noble Gryff as the rest. In the end, he’ll probably even take up pranking and become a star Seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

When I’m feeling ornery about the Next Generation, I imagine Al Sev becoming a defiant Slytherin teenager who dumps his first name altogether and shows the same contempt for Gryffindor that Sirius Black felt for his own family’s traditional House. (Let’s imagine Ginny screeching like Walburga.) And when I’m feeling merciful to a poor, shy little kid surrounded by a family with a history of bullying, I imagine him as a quiet, nerdish Ravenclaw who keeps his mouth shut and his head down (as his namesake advised Harry while slapping him around in a duel), and writes a revisionist history of the Vold Wars for his NEWT History of Magic project.

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

as he struggles with learning that, deep down, he’s just as much a noble Gryff as the rest. In the end, he’ll probably even take up pranking and become a star Seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

Unfortunately that sounds very likely.

[jana-ch.livejournal.com]

So which to you prefer as an alternative to the pranking, Quidditch-playing Gryff: the defiant, rebellious Slyth, or the quiet, revisionist Raven?

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the bland, generic Hufflepuff.

[jana-ch.livejournal.com]

Or the tough, hard-working Puff who believes in justice, not mercy. If Dumbledore had been a Hufflepuff, the Maraders would have been properly punished. And so would Hagrid. And Severus. And little Tommy Riddle, though that probably would not have helped.