Potted Potter

Chocolate cake and silly string are smeared on the floor, along with a hat, a book, some googly eye glasses, an orange wig, pigtails and the Devil’s horns.

Stages from New York to London have looked like this after welcoming Potted Potter to town.

British actors Daniel Clarkson and Scott Hoatson won’t lie to you, it could have been grander, but their retelling of all seven Harry Potter books in 70 minutes is a silly business and the budget for delivering silliness to a brilliant standard cannot be calculated in Muggle terms.

If you haven’t read the Harry Potter books, you’re in good company. Clarkson spends the entire show speed reading book seven while playing over 300 of JK Rawlings’ characters and making up a few of his own. Hoatson’s Harry Potter, written all over his face in case you forget who he’s playing, reaches puberty with alacrity, after which you get the sense he’d like to jump ship to whichever character will give him the best odds of survival.

Wherever you fit in the Potter universe, whether you’ve read the books, seen the movies, seen a movie, or are just friends of people who like Potter and want a great night out, you are going to enjoy this show. 

There’s nods to Priscilla, Queen of the Desert which is playing next door, Game of Thrones, Twilight, Donald Trump, but the highlight is a giant game of Quidditch featuring the entire audience, an inflatable ball and Hoatson as the golden snitch.

The program calls this type of show condensed comedy, but it expands exponentially when water is added and Daniel Clarkson has had his finger on the water pistol trigger since he and co-creator Jefferson Turner began this adventure in 2006.

With so much mischievous on stage, the comedy also can get carried away, so while the program says 70 minutes, extra time is needed to compensate for the giddiness of the moment, hilarious onstage mishaps, and audience participation levels. Our show got out at 9pm.

Find your inner wizard and come to see this show.

Debra Bela