Stoyan Stoyanov

Utter disappointment. These words perfectly describe The Cursed Child. The play sucked a part of my love for Harry Potter away, like a Dementor’s kiss. After spending about 4 hours in an uncomfortable chair from which I could barely see the stage (the runtime of both acts should justify the nightmarishly expensive tickets), in the end the story returned to its original position. The lesson is this "Don’t stir the waters of the past, or you’ll have to put everything back the way it was." How did the writers of this nonsense fail to learn from their own lesson!? The only inspiration driving the script is the desire to milk the popular multi-billion-dollar brand that was once just a beloved book series. I’m certain that ChatGPT could craft a better story based on fan-service bullet points. Visually the play feels worn out and outdated, the stage tricks are mediocre, and some of the dynamic scenes come across as downright laughable. The old and uncomfortable Palace Theatre itself deserves harsh criticism, but that’s a whole other discussion. If you have money to spare, you’d be better off throwing it out the window than spending it on this theatrical disaster.