Harry Potter has offered wish fulfillment to millions of readers and moviegoers, as “The Boy Who Lived” was plucked from his mundane life with the Dursleys and fulfilled a destiny full of magic, wonder, and danger. Years later, J.K. Rowling has picked up the pieces where the epilogue of The Deathly Hallows left off, with Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, an eighth story written exclusively for the stage. Pottermore.com has published artwork and a synopsis for the play:
It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.
While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.
We’ve already seen seen the Ministry of Magic burn through the Weasleys with long hours, paralyzing bureaucracy, and unappreciative, incompetent supervisors. The prospect of Harry becoming “The Man Who Peaked Early” seems a bit glum, but that’s adulthood for you. One day you’re befriending hippogriffs and being paraded off the Quidditch field by your teammates, and the next you’re numbing your self-disgust with a magically replenishing hip flask of Ogden’s Old Firewhisky.
The Cursed Child opens next July, and tickets are going on sale over at harrypottertheplay.com starting October 30. (The site is currently down, apparently the result of either stampeding, Potter-obsessed muggles, or a Death Eater casting a Cruciatus curse on Rackspace’s servers.)
[h/t Mashable]