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Theatre Review: Potted Potter
Potted Potter
Writers Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner
Cast: Daniel Clarkson and Scott Hoatson
Seymour Centre
Reviewed by Ron Lee, CSP
Having neither read the Harry Potter books nor seen any of the movies, I wondered if I would relate to any of the references in this show.
Potted Potter, playing at the Seymour Centre, is J.K. Rowling meets Monty Python meets Play School meets TheatreSports meets Readers’ Digest and is a low-budget production in which one performer plays Harry Potter and the only other actor portrays the twenty other roles.
Some of the references such as “Horcrux” and “Hufflepuff” and a “real-life game of Quidditch” were initially lost on me but it was easy to soon work out what they were talking about.
Daniel Clarkson and Scott Hoatson have apparently been performing this show for ten years and are comfortable enough to allow the flow to introduce ad libs, especially considering that the audience participation includes young children on stage.
Potted Potter is the ideal show for people who have short attention spans and, having not experienced the seven books and eight films, I left the theatre satisfied at the amount of time that I had saved. Seven books concentrated into seventy minutes!
The show is fast-moving, a lot of fun and is perfect for audiences of all ages, especially the Harry Potter devotees who were going nuts on the opening night. With only nine performances in the Sydney season you might need to book.
