Interview: David Ricardo Pearce, Naana Agyei-Ampadu & Thomas Aldridge On 10 Years Of HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD

As Harry Potter and the Cursed Child celebrates its landmark 10th anniversary in the West End this week, BroadwayWorld caught up with three of the primary actors to celebrate the era and the wonder. The magic which first captivated audiences in 2016 shows no sign of fading.

For David Ricardo Pearce, Thomas Aldridge and Naana Agyei Ampadu, who play Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, the production’s enduring success lies not only in its astonishing theatrical illusions, but in its emotional heart. Speaking ahead of the anniversary, the trio reflected on bringing the beloved characters to life two decades after the original story, the challenges of portraying parenthood, friendship and family, and why live theatre continues to offer an unforgettable experience for devoted fans and first time theatre goers alike.

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has become a theatrical phenomenon. What do you think has enabled it to continue captivating audiences ten years after it first opened?

Naana: I think there's nothing like Harry Potter and The Cursed Child in the West End at the moment, it’s amazing and it stands on its own. Firstly, you've got the connection with the books that have become worldwide sensations, the people who read it first of all, are now passing on to their children. So with its wide readership, it’s an incredibly loved show and there's so much that happens in it.

The magic on stage is constantly surprising, every time people come and see it, audiences want to come and see it again to discover new things. The audience will react, and then they'll realise something has occurred that perhaps they didn't see, and so you have to come back. We also get a lot of people who've seen it before, and then want to bring their children, or want to bring grandchildren, or want to tell friends to come. It's a long lasting play, as it's got everything.

You are each playing characters whom millions of people already know and love. How do you honour those iconic performances whilst making the roles distinctly your own?

David: Harry, Ron and Hermione are characters that huge amounts of the population know. As an actor, you receive a script and you see the journey that your character goes on. You think about how you might play that journey beat by beat, as in any play, and you look at it like that in the first instance.

But with this show, you've also got all that backstory of the seven books to inform what makes that character tick. We also get that slightly free pass, because it's 20 years after the book. Our characters have necessarily changed in so many ways, they're all working parents, and that gives us a bit of license to make them our own. Because it started as a book, every person imagining Harry, Ron and Hermione would have imagined a different version of those characters that may look slightly different. Perhaps they would have spoken and behaved slightly different.

I have a license to think about what is inherently Harry's (progression), we know he's kind, he's loving, he's impulsive and he gets into a lot of trouble. He's competitive with amazing, complicated qualities and in this play, he's struggling a lot with connecting with his child, as he's been through this horrendous trauma, with a past of being locked in a cupboard. This is rich stuff to play as an actor, and I've just got to hope that what I do honours enough people's versions of that they're imagining the character to be, because audiences may come with a lot of preconceptions, and I've just got to hope that they see I’m trying to be true to what the character is, and that's it’s going to resonate with them.

Friendship has always been at the heart of the Harry Potter story. How has the relationship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione evolved in this production?

Tom: Everything evolves over 19 years and these three have been through so much as children, where they were all drawn together because they were all misfits, in a way. That's how their friendship blossomed initially, and then they became heroes and very, very famous. That takes an awful lot of navigating, and they've done it all together whilst going off into their own avenues. Ron is incredibly content that they've each found their place, and supported each other through that, and it's very apparent in the show that they all are still very close, and their families are close. They are uncles and aunties to each other's children, they are family.

The play explores parenthood alongside adventure. What do you think audiences connect with most about seeing these characters as adults?

David: Understanding each other a lot. The parents in the audience are going to see a lot of themselves. We see a lot of Harry dealing with Albus in the play and a bit of Draco dealing with Scorpius, and you see some of Hermione and Ron dealing with Rose. But the main sort of parent-child contact is Harry and Ginny. Because as parents, and we're all parents ourselves, and I definitely know, I'm not a perfect parent. There's been a lot of times that I made mistakes, that I say things I wish I hadn't have said. I lose my temper, I get overwhelmed and frustrated. Those are all things that Harry's feeling. He's Head of Magical Law Enforcement at The Ministry. He's desperately trying to keep on top of all the sort of various dangers that might be attacking the wizarding world. He's got three kids, he's struggling to keep his head above water, and so he finds Albus very, very difficult to get close to. So that relationship between father and son plays out over the course of the play. It resonates with lots and lots of parents in terms of finding ways to connect with our children and finding ways to express themselves.

 In terms of magical effects, is there a moment in the show which still leaves you gasping in all every performance?

Naana: There are scenes where people transfigure, so they change from one person to another. Every time I witness it, even knowing how it happened, through magic, of course, it still leaves me with a slight gasp, because it is brilliantly done. Also, when certain flying things turn up, there is still this sense of, my goodness, and so many times with a lot of the effects, the most powerful thing is hearing the audience. Or especially in the front few rows where you can see their faces, it's the gasp.

What does reaching the 10th anniversary mean to you personally is part of the company?

David: Personally, it's really special to be part of a huge show which has a massive legacy. I think getting to 10 years in the theatre is really powerful. It is an honour to be part of a show that continually asks people to take that journey. We are celebrating with a party, yes there will be dancing.

It is important to mark landmarks, but it's also really important, every single day you turn up for work, to respect the 1,500 people watching that day. Every single show I work I try to make feel like that 10-year anniversary show, because they are as special as each other.

If you could spend one day in the Wizarding World as your character, where would you go first?

Tom: The Hogshead pub. I'd sit by the fire, get some wizarding world bar snacks, pumpkin pasties, there might be like some kind of magical pork scratching. I’d get comfortable, a couple of beers. I wouldn't bother with butter beer because I'm not a great lover of it, I'd get some proper beer. I'd send an owl to my mates, maybe Neville. Jump on my broom but not jump on the broom if we've had more than one. Road safety, air safety! I’d fly all around the world, up in the mountains, just go and see stuff.

David: I like the idea of flying, I always wanted to fly, I'd love to do that.

Naana: I would love to go to Hogwarts and sit in the great hall and see all the food turn up, walk through the secret windy passageways and just explore. But I guess I'd have to either be a student or a teacher to be able to do that. If I could be a student, that's what I would do. As a grown person now, I would go to Gringotts. I'd want to go and do a full Scrooge McDuck and jump into the gold coins. I'd like to go to the Malfoys vault. I bet you they've got loads of stuff in there.

What do you hope somebody seeing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child for the first time, takes away from the experience?

Tom: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a very, very different experience from most theatre shows. For the most part, you're completely immersed in the world all day long. I know when I go and see theatre, a lot of the time I wake up the following day and go, oh, I'd love to just be back there and be living in that world. If you can take away this idea that you've just spent the day in another world, and it was just the most wonderful place then (we’ve done our job right). The themes of the show are friendship, love and family, so to be able to live in that experience, enjoy it and wake up the following day and think I wish I could be back there.

As the production celebrates its 10th anniversary, why do you think live theatre continues to be the perfect way to experience the magic?

David: There’s a magic trick every few minutes, they come quick and fast. And before you can figure out how one has been done, the next one's coming. In comparison with TV and film, there’s CGI, computer graphics, but in the theatre, live magic is exciting, because you're using old-fashioned magical tricks, and there's a joy to that.

I've spoken about the importance of live theatre and Jack Thorne has written powerfully in other plays about theatre being like communion, a place where souls meet in, a collective space to hear the same story.

This is the one space where you put your phone down, and as a community and a collective, you are all engaging in looking at something together, and you sit next to people who you maybe would have never met before, and it sort of forces us all to do something together as one without being distracted.

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