Made the trek to the beautiful Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne’s CBD to see Potted Potter, The Unauthorised Harry Potter Parody.   Written By Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner, performed by Scott Hoatson and Brendon Murphy.  Under the direction of Richard Hurst with Hanna Berrigan Assistant Director.    Atheneum Theatre 2

Entering the theatre we were greeted with Harry Potter themed music which set the atmosphere for the show beautifully.  Once the show started, actors Scott Hoatson and Brendon Murphy made a grand and hilarious entrance to the stage and explained what the show will be and what’s going to happen.  Me being a fan of British slapstick comedy this is comedy gold as we’re taken on a 70 minute journey through all of the Harry Potter books with lots of added twists and turns along the way!  

Scott Hoatson plays the role of Harry, playfully skimming through the story of each book while Brendon Murphy plays all the other characters, yes all of them!  Each book was done in about 10 minutes each, with the plots of each being sped through and somehow still telling the whole story. I constantly loved the parts of the show where Scott would read a section of the book and then Brendon would stop and ask why this happened, this made for hysterical pauses and audience participation.  The use of over the top props and smoke machines was brilliant including puppets, hats and bits of costume to portray the characters of Hermione and Dumbledore.  One of the big highlights for me was the live Quidditch game which involved the audience being split into teams and tossing the blow up world globe around the crowd.   What made the live aspect of the show even funnier was when one of them would do something that was clearly unplanned making the other one have to stop to control his laughter. I also really liked the fact that the laughter kept coming and that the humour didn’t die down or become boring by the end.  The minimal set was very effective and didn’t get in the way of the performances.

Both actors bounced off each other flawlessly, breaking the 4thwall and the audience participation aspect made the night even more fun!  I myself copped a spray of the water pistol in my face!