Wild about Harry

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This article was published 13/10/2016 (3436 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For 10 years, off and on, Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner have been performing the Harry Potter saga in their show Potted Potter. It started in 2005 when the two English actors were asked to create a five-minute street show recapping the plot of the first five Potter books, to perform for London fans lined up for the midnight release of the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

It was such a hit with the assembled crowd that they expanded the show the following year to an hour-long performance covering the six published books published by then. By 2007, days after the publication of the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, they had incorporated the last chapter in J.K. Rowling’s series and took the show on its first tour. 

On Tuesday, ahead of the show’s arrival in Winnipeg, Clarkson was in Waterloo, Ont., where he had just enjoyed his first Canadian Thanksgiving, coupled with the indulgences of the city’s raucous Oktoberfest celebration. 

“You’re lucky I’m awake right now,” Clarkson says.

FP: Given that there are some significant differences, is Potted Potter a summary of the books or the movies?

DC: Mainly the books. I was a huge fan of the books and the show goes back 10 years to its first incarnation, and at that stage, there weren’t that many movies out at the time. I was about to say I don’t like the films, because they cut so much out. But then I’m not sure I’m really in a place to say that.

FP: Really, you don’t like the films?

DC: I grew to love them. With the books, when you create Hogwarts in your head; you have this idea of what, say, the Great Hall is. The films were amazing, but really there was nothing you could do that tops what the imagination had. But I’m still more than happy to watch them.

FP: When you’re performing for fans of the book, you have to keep it a PG-rated affair, correct?

DC: When we went up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival back in 2007, we had the idea of doing it as a more adult show, and then we realized that the books are very much family-oriented and they’re loved by everyone. So it was always a bigger challenge for us as comedy writer-performers where you can’t use vulgar language and you can’t use innuendo, you have to find another way to do the comedy that’s equally as funny. That for me was a more enjoyable challenge, to try to do what the books did to have a show that’s accessible for everybody. 

FP: Quidditch is a very dangerous sport — do audience members need to take any precautions during the play’s Quidditch match?

DC: Everybody does get to join in the Quidditch match. Over the past 10 years, we’ve only had two fatalities. That’s not bad odds, is it? And that was down in Texas, so no one really cares.

FP: You can’t bring guns to Quidditch.

DC: Exactly. The ones who are most dangerous during the Quidditch scene are the dads and older gentlemen in the audience who think it’s the NHL hockey final and really get into it. And I’ve seen dads knock other people’s children out of the way so they can score a goal. So they really get involved.

FP: Seven books in 70 minutes, with 360 characters and only two actors. It sounds like a lot of fun, but also an awful lot to keep in your head.

DC: It really is. Jeff, who I created the play with, plays Harry Potter and I play everyone else, so I get a great workout. It means I can enjoy Canadian Thanksgiving, eat a lot of turkey and the next day, run around the stage and burn it all off. That’s great. As an egotistical actor with delusions of grandeur, it’s probably the greatest challenge. I can go, “I am Snape and I’m also Voldemort, but then I’m also Hermione. I can do them all due to my wide range.”

FP: Actress Fiona Shaw was just here in Winnipeg shooting a TV series and it would have been interesting to see what she thought of your Aunt Petunia.

DC: That would have been amazing. I would have been interested to see what she thought. I’m a big fan.

FP: Has anyone from the films seen the show?

DC: Yeah quite a few. We haven’t had any of the main three, but Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) came to see it, and Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley). My favourite was Warwick Davis came to see it. We actually didn’t have Professor Flitwick in the show at the time, but he sat in the front row so I came down on my knees and shouted ‘Charmed!’ I said: ‘What do you think?’ And he shouted back: ‘You’re too tall.’ That was a real moment for me. 

FP: Has J.K. Rowling seen it?

DC: There’s a story that’s almost gone down in legend. I met her last year and I confirmed it. When we first did the show, and I think we were only in a 50-seater, she turned up at the box office and they didn’t recognize her and turned her away because they were sold out. So now, wherever we are, we always hold one seat in case she shows up again. It happened once and if it happens twice, it look like we’re just being mean.

FP: The eighth story, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, is stage competition, in a way. It’s also its own kind of compilation of many scenes from the life of Harry Potter. Have you seen it? Are you now obliged to incorporate it?

DC: I have seen it, actually. My brother worked on sound for the show so I was able to see it early on. I think it’s redefining theatre with what it does on the stage. I couldn’t tell you how they did half the things they did. There’s Dementors flying around, people disappear and reappear. My mind was blown. We’re not actually putting it in the show at the moment, because we want everyone to have a chance to experience it for themselves. 

FP: So Potted Potter arose from an affection for the source material, as opposed to a need to satirize it.

DC: It comes from a place of love. We tell the jokes that the fans themselves would like to make. We have great respect for the books and great love for the characters. It’s the reason we’ve never done Potted Twilight, because that would be coming from a place of hate. 

 

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FreepKing