‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ works its magic on many levels

It will dazzle your senses, expand your heart, and keep you buzzing for hours afterwards.

Simply amazing things happen in “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” the new stage play at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre: bodies fly through the air; time expands and contracts; and other-than-human creatures appear, some marvellous and some horrific.

At the same time, it tells a gripping story about growing up, intergenerational family conflict and the power of love and acceptance. And it extends the Potter universe in a decidedly 21st-century fashion that will appeal to adult and youth audiences alike.

The fact that it manages to do all those things in three-and-a-half hours (including intermission) of jam-packed entertainment is genuinely astounding.

It’s a wonderful touch to have “Cursed Child” open in Toronto on Father’s Day, for the story centres on father-child relationships: between 37-year-old Harry Potter (Trevor White) and his troubled son Albus (Luke Kimball); between Harry’s long-time foe Draco Malfoy (Brad Hodder) and his awkward son Scorpius (Thomas Mitchell Barnet); and between other characters central to the Potterverse.

The show opens with Albus’s departure from London’s King’s Cross Station for Hogwarts School, seen off by his parents Harry and Ginny (Trish Lindstrom). Rose Granger-Weasley (Hailey Lewis) is there too with her parents Ron (Gregory Prest) and Hermione (Sarah Afful), setting up the expectation that Albus and Rose will be great pals at Hogwarts just as their parents were.

But Albus is not comfortable with confident Rose’s plans for social domination. On the train ride, he’s drawn to Scorpius, who’s bound to be unpopular because he lacks conventional social skills and because there are questions about his parentage. Barnet, in a star-making performance, offers a beautifully drawn portrayal of a neurodivergent youth who’s acutely self-aware of his differences and working hard to own them proudly.

Albus and Scorpius’s experience — of school, of growing up — is not the same as their that of their parents. Part of the show’s genius is its depiction of both generations’ struggle with those changes, offering points of identification for both adult and youth audiences. The two young men develop a strong bond and the show teeters on the edge of identifying it as romantic. Debate about this in fan communities seems likely to continue among Toronto audiences.

One age group that seems unlikely to enjoy the show are younger children. The long running time, complex plotting, loud noises and many truly scary moments makes the show unsuitable for pre-tweens.

Soon in that first scene at King’s Cross, the production offers the first of many astonishing illusions, as Albus and Rose spin around and their Hogwarts uniforms appear on them — yes, as if by magic. Again and again things happen live on stage that previously only seemed possible on screen, including a time-travel effect in which the entire stage seems to pulsate. Throughout, the integration of design and other elements takes stagecraft to an unprecedented level of sophistication, from Jamie Harrison’s illusions and magic to Neil Austin’s lighting, Gareth Fry’s sound, Imogen Heap’s music, Christine Jones’s set, to pyrotechnic and flying effects. Much less high-tech but key to the success of John Tiffany’s staging is the choreography of bodies and objects by movement director Steven Hoggett. Staircases move as if in a graceful dance, and the swirl of Hogwarts robes becomes a key visual trope.

“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” premiered in London in 2016 in two parts, each lasting 2.5 hours. It won an unprecedented nine Olivier Awards (London’s version of the Tonys) and spawned more stagings, including one on Broadway. Post-pandemic, some productions including this one in Toronto have been compacted into a single-serving version covering the same material.

Things move fast. Key plot points are established in a short scene and the action rockets off. While I never lost track of what was happening, I did wish that some characters and relationships had more time to breathe, in particular Delphi Diggory (Sara Farb), who gets surprisingly little stage time given her centrality to the story.

Nearly as boggling as the live stage effects are the time-travel concepts. Early on, Albus decides to go back in time to change something that happened when his father was at Hogwarts (in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” to be exact), and aided by Scorpius and Delphi, uses a time-turning device to do so. Thus are launched iterations of possible futures that put me in mind of the 2004 “Battlestar Galactica” reboot.

Part of the joy of experiencing this family-centred show is the sense of audience kinship with the Potter stories themselves. There was a ripple of shock and awe in the audience when a character revealed themselves to be in a position of power at Hogwarts, and the implications of one of these wrinkles in time began to land.

As much as it moves quickly, the show leaves space for interpersonal scenes in which relationships are built, explored and challenged, and the depth of emotions that are communicated are a testament to Tiffany’s direction (recreated in Toronto by associate director Pip Minnithorpe) and the skills of the acting company, with the exchanges between the Potter family (White, Lindstrom and Kimball), and between Albus and Scorpius resonating particularly deeply.

While tickets to this show don’t come cheap, there’s a weekly lottery for $40 seats in good locations (sign up at lottery.mirvish.com). And please do go see it, because it will blow your mind.

By Jack Thorne, based on a story by J.K. Rowling, Thorne, and John Tiffany. Directed by Tiffany. Tickets on sale through Dec. 24, 2022 at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria St., Toronto. Mirvish.com and 800-461-3333.

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