A performance as magical as a muggle, but a stand-up dubbed laugh-out-loud hilarious, Lunchbox Theatrical Productions and James Seabright for Potted Productions’ unauthorised Harry Potter parody Potted Potter cast a spell of hilarity on Brisbane audiences last week.
A cast of writer and creator Daniel Clarkson and performer Scott Hoatson left QPAC‘s Playhouse roaring in fits of uncontrollable laughter. Potter lovers young and old watched the pair’s quest to condense seven Harry Potter novels and a real-life game of Quidditch into a 75 minute show. The fantastically funny production featured all our favourite characters, including a schoolgirl version of Hermione Granger donning braids, a bogan Ron Weasley and a scar-less Harry Potter.
It was hard to tell if the fits of laughter on stage were planned, as the performing pair cracked up at each other’s antics as much as the audience – after all, it would be hard not to lose your cool when your counterpart is caught shoveling chocolate cake into his mouth when the lights are brought up sooner than expected. And when said counterpart had forgotten the warmth of Brisbane, smudging melted chocolate cake between clammy hands.
Audiences reveled in being a “superior society” as the actors, having just come from the States, breathed a sigh of relief not having to refer to the “Sorcerer’s Stone” anymore. Crowd favourites included the “golden snitch” (AKA Scott Hoatson dressed head to toe in gold) being taken down by a young boy barely up to Scott’s hip, and enough Donald Trump jokes to last until the next election.
The play was created by double Oliver Award Best Entertainment nominees Daniel Clarkson and fellow creator Jefferson Turner, and was first performed at Pleasance Theatre in London in 2006. Potted Productions was founded in the same year by James Seabright to produce the play, and since then the performance has toured in the UK, Australiasia and North America, including two West End and two off-Broadway shows. Spin-offs Potted Pirates, Potted Panto and Potted Sherlock have also delighted crowds.
Less about the novel storylines and more about what happens when a Potter lover collides with a non-reader, Potted Potter is like a box of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans – it is a mystery what you will get next, but you can bet it will be flavourful.
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