Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Ticket-holders asked to arrive an hour early for bag checks to prevent leaks
Audience members will be re-searched if they leave the theatre at any point
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Your support makes all the difference.Harry Potter fans with tickets to see new play The Cursed Child have been told to arrive an hour early to undergo bag checks aimed at stopping video recordings leaking online.
Ticket-holders have been banned from bringing suitcases or large bags into the Palace Theatre in London’s West End due to “limited front of house space”, with security searches also planned for the interval.
“Dangerous items, professional photography, video or audio recording equipment will not be allowed into the building,” an email read. “This is a condition of entry. If you leave the theatre at any point you will be checked again prior to re-admittance. The use of photography and recording equipment of any kind is prohibited.”
Organisers have warned audiences that anyone caught filming the performance will have their equipment confiscated and the unauthorised files deleted. They insist that arriving so far in advance of curtain-up is necessary “to ensure the show goes off on time and [ticket-holders] can organise their travel after the show”.
The Cursed Child, co-written by JK Rowling, is the first new story about the boy wizard in a decade and as such, hype surrounding its opening is sky high. The two-part production officially opens on 30 July but previews begin on 7 June.
Little is known about the plot, bar that the story is set 19 years after Harry, Ron, Hemione and the gang waved goodbye to Hogwarts. Harry’s son Albus takes the starring role, as he is left “struggling with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted” while learning with his father that “sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places”.
Jamie Parker is playing a grown-up Harry, who now works for the Ministry of Magic, while Sam Clemmett takes on the role of Albus. Noma Dumezweni has been cast as Hermione and Paul Thornley will play Ron.
The tight security measures surrounding The Cursed Child are similar to those instigated while Benedict Cumberbatch was playing Hamlet at the Barbican. The Oscar-nominated actor made an impassioned backstage plea to fans to stop recording his performance on their phones after being distracted by red camera lights in the auditorium.
Rowling is familiar with such precautions. Barbed wire was put up around the print works for her Harry Potter books after one employee tried to sell three chapters to The Sun, publisher Bloomsbury made staff sign stringent confidentiality contracts and padlocked its crates of books, and fans at the film premieres were watched over by security guards wearing infrared goggles to spot and stop anyone recording the screen.
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