Potted Potter – 3Olympia Theatre – Review
by Fran Winston

3Olympia Theatre, Dame Street Dublin 2.
Runs until July 9, at 7pm nightly. Matinee shows on July 30/1/5/8/9 July. Tickets from €21

I was quite surprised to realise that it’s over a quarter of a century since the first Harry Potter book ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ was released. It’s sixteen years since the first movie adaptation hit screens. So safe to say many of us have grown up with the boy wizard in our lives (even if those figures do make us feel rather old).

This means that this is a perfect multi-generational show with children still discovering the joy of the books and movies while many parents are old enough to have become fans when they were released. However, I will admit to being sceptical. The premise of this show is to fit all seven of the Harry Potter books into a mere 70 minutes. Fans of the big screen version will recall that the books were so epic that they actually split the final book into two movies (Ok, also an attempt to gross even more box office from it).

However, this arrives in Dublin with an Olivier Award nomination as Best Entertainment and Family Show and a Las Vegas residency under its belt, so it was clear that they are doing something right.

It literally does what it says on the tin and from the off the two actors explain this to you. What follows is 70 minutes of whimsy as they attempt to get across the gist of the stories in less time than it took JK Rowling to write a chapter.

Setting out their stall from the start, the set is incredibly simple with just a few items on the stage, none of which seems very relevant to Harry Potter initially but all of which work. There are also several ridiculous props, which again appear to have nothing to do with Harry Potter, yet somehow fit right in here.

With a vast amount of humour and heart the actors gamely take on all the characters for this very physical performance that does indeed, if not cover everything in the books, give you a pretty good overview of the story.

Along the way, they engage the audience in a rather bizarre game of Quidditch and have a few sneaky digs at some other literary franchises including Fifty Shades of Grey and the Twilight series.

The writing here is razor sharp as they manage to sneak in-jokes that are absolutely for the more mature muggles in the audience yet will still keep the younger fans amused.

Both actors are fabulously engaging and maintain their ridiculously high energy levels throughout. If Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson had been children’s TV presenters, this would be the result!

It is impossible not to get sucked into their vivacious energy and even if you’ve never read a Harry Potter book or seen a film (is there anyone on the planet who hasn’t?) you can enjoy this. Great fun for all the family this will actually make you want to revisit the series and will remind you of how epic the stories actually were.