Presented by: Scriptease
Reviewed: 8 March 2017
Grab your wands and your Potter loving pals – no, not the ones who love the movies. I mean the die-hard, crazy nerd friends who have read all of the books including the Cursed Child (sigh) and Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them. Get ready to reach into the Goblet of Fire and pull one of 200 names out – yes, you heard me correctly – 200 of the most understated characters from the Harry Potter universe get the chance to have their story told by six very clever improv actors. Forget Daniel Radcliffe in a Broadway production, these guys will have you laughing hysterically and sometimes you won’t even know why.
The show begins with three audience members being given the job of each picking a name out of the Goblet of Fire. Once read aloud, the audience then chooses which of the characters’ story will be told by way of clapping loudly. Once decided, a round of trivia is held to decide which audience member will have the task of making sure the story stays authentic by having the power to honk anytime there are inaccuracies of Potter facts. We were lucky enough to get Peeves, the lovable larakin poltergeist who lives at Hogwarts, and truth be told I feel like we hit the jackpot with this one as the other two were characters most people wouldn’t know regardless of how hard core Potter you are.
The best bit about it is the actors have no idea where they are going with the story and with some not being huge Potter fans they tend to guess a lot of things and stare sideways at the audience as if to wait for a honk. With clever Batman and Lord of the Rings jokes thrown in, this show is certainly funnier if you know all of your fiction novels.
With the story taking place after the death of Voldermort, we discover that Peeves has been fired from Hogwarts and found himself working for the New Minister of Magic. The story took lots of twist and turns and somehow ended up with people terrified of this crazed maniac who had somehow morphed into Smeagle crossed with the Joker. All ended well for our lovable larakin who eventually found himself back at Hogwarts, terrifying teens with the employees at the Ministry being left to attend years of therapy to get over their ordeal.
All in all a great show with heaps of imagination and whilst it might be a little ambitious to add so many characters to the Goblet it is pretty likely that each show will contain at least one out of the three characters chosen that audiences will know. Once a character has been portrayed their name does not go back into the Goblet, so it really is a show that you can see multiple times this Fringe season.
Reviewed by Tara Forbes
Rating out of 5: 4
Venue: Tandanya
Season: 10th-19th March (excluding the 13th & 14th)
Duration: 60 mins
Tickets: $18-$23
Bookings: https://www.adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/unplotted-potter
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