Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
A Magical Theatrical Experience
By Michael Raine Photos by Evan Zimmerman
TORONTO CAST OF HARRY POTTER & THE CURSED CHILD
I
am no expert in theatre , but I have seen a number of great shows over the years . One thing I can say is I ’ ve never seen a theatrical production like Harry Potter and the Cursed Child . For over three hours it keeps you grinning like a child at the visual wonderment that is right in front of you . There are flying demons , underwater scenes , the entire set seemingly rippling as time warps , characters morphing into other characters , actors floating in mid-air while dueling with fire-shooting wands — simply , it ’ s non-stop movement , action , and eye candy . As one review ’ s headline read in The Globe and Mail , it is a “ mindbogglingly magical live show .”
“ Everyone thinks it ’ s just a play , but my god , it ’ s like doing a Las Vegas magic show with narrative ,” states lighting designer Neil Austin to Professional Lighting & Production over Zoom from his home in Britain .
Since the original two-part iteration of the show premiered in London ’ s West End in 2016 , and since opened around the world , Austin ’ s extraordinary work on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has been lauded on multiple continents . It ’ s earned him the 2019 Helpmann Award for Best Lighting Design , 2018 Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a Play ( which he also won in 2019 for Ink ), the 2018 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for a Play , and the 2017 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Lighting Design , among others .
And because this is Harry Potter after all , one of the most lucrative and popular franchises in the history of literature and film , no expense was spared to make Harry Potter and the Cursed Child a true spectacle . For the Toronto production , for example ( which opened on May 31 , 2022 , after a two-year-long delay because of the pandemic ), around $ 5 million was spent to transform the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre into a custom-designed space that brings the audience into the world of Harry Potter the moment they step off the sidewalk .
The funny thing is , Austin did not know what he was getting himself into when he agreed to get involved with the Potter franchise . “ I knew nothing about it before I started ,” he chuckles . “ I ’ d never read the books , I ’ d never seen the films . And so , I didn ’ t really know what I was getting into and it slowly became more and more plain as people found out I was doing it . When I was working on it , there was a level of interest in this that was so much higher than anything else I ’ ve ever done before . Even the fact that you couldn ’ t take the script home ; our scripts were locked in a safe overnight . I mean , no one ’ s ever interested in a new play ! And suddenly this was the most important new play ever in terms of public interest . It was really extraordinary to deal with . It just added to the sense of , god I hope we don ’ t screw this up . There was a level of pressure that I started to understand . But for a long time , luckily , I didn ’ t understand the level of
18 | Fall 2022