Review: Potted Potter – Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds

Never work with children or animals. Extend that to dragons, house elves and precocious children and you have to admire CBBC’s Dan and Jeff’s (Dan Clarkson and Jefferson Turner) bravery.

As the film franchise of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series draws to a close, the intrepid duo revive their madcap romp through all seven HP novels in just over 70 minutes.

Before Ms Rowling’s lawyers start to worry, this is a tongue firmly in cheek parody of the world of the boy wizard, played with affection but never afraid to mock the source material.

It’s been two years since the duo last performed the piece, and this is only the second show of a short preview tour before the show heads to Edinburgh but it’s lost none of its energy or chemistry.

It takes real skill to parody a well loved work and the duo give a performance of apparent chaos that belies the tightness of performance and timing. Jeff plays the Potter ‘nerd’ an expert on all seven novels while Dan confuses Hogwarts with warthogs and the books with the Lord of the Rings and Narnia. With Jeff donning the trademark Potter glasses and Dan valiantly trying to portray the remaining characters, the duo actually manage to provide a strangely informative summary of the Potter story arc.

There are some delightful moments to savour; an audience participatory game of quidditch, a PowerPoint summary of The Prisoner of Azkaban and a full on musical finale featuring a Potter/Voldermort version of the Gloria Gaynor classic I Will Survive and an inspired return of deceased house elf Dobby with a hilarious rendition of Sinatra’s My Way.

Yes, there are some mistakes on the way but the genial duo incorporates these seamlessly into the show resulting in a sense of being included on some big in joke.

Having sold over 450 million copies, the world of Harry Potter has now become a well-established creation. For anyone who has somehow managed to escape the wizardry and don’t fancy ploughing their way through seven novels or eight films, Potted Potter could, surreally, be an ideal introduction to the franchise. Fans of the material or not Potted Potter is a perfect comic creation – simply magic.

Photo: Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner in Potted Potter. Picture by Geraint Lewis