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.”