LEAN GREEN SCORPIUS MACHINE

Albus: It’s either Scorp or the cold, clammy hands of death.

Scorpius, uncovering his eyes: It’s… Scorpius!

Full picture HERE

Have you ever dealt with teenagers? They're the worst.

I was a teenager two years back and to be honest, I still feel like one. At that time, I thought I was being rebellious and cool when I talked back to my parents and defied them. Now I feel horrible. I was awful to them when all they were trying to do was connect with me. I yelled awful things at them and when they retaliated, I felt hurt. That's what happened in the Cursed Child.

People who say that 'Harry should have known better since he's an adult' can get the fuck out. He is beyond hurt when Albus screams at him that he wished he wasn't his father. The man who never had a family of his own and wanted one since forever. That hurt, rage and betrayal makes him lose his cool and he ends up yelling back. He is immediately regretful, not only because he lost it but also as that wasn't true. Albus is his son and sometimes he wishes that dealing with him was easier but he never wishes that he had a different son.

The Cursed Child is not how Harry is bad parent and Albus hates him. The play revolves around how Albus can't differentiate between the Boy who Lived and his father and ends up projecting his hatred on the latter. Harry, on the other hand, literally doesn't know how to address his son's growing depression and sadness. He tries to bond with him by doing things that would have made him happy. This turns out to be a wrong move. When everything is going to shit, he gets this vision which he interprets wrongly and pulls a classic Harry: going to extreme lengths to protect Albus. Further alienating his son. In the entire play, all Harry wants to do is bridge the growing gap between them at the same time dealing with a life threatening condition.

I'm not going to touch the topic of Draco Malfoy and his son except to say that he's a good parent but not better than Harry. He has his own set of issues with his son (not delved in deeper because it's not about them) but the crux of the matter is that Scorpius knows the difference between the Death Eater and his father. He never doubts that Draco doesn't love him. Also he doesn't have siblings or cousins, so he never had to compare himself with others. That's why he's so comfortable in his own skin. Harry may hold a grudge against Slytherins (understandable), but his reason for separating Albus and Scorpius is not because he's a Malfoy or a Slytherin. It's simply because he takes the warning from Bane to heart and he deduces that his son only hangs out with a boy who has a questionable heritage. When he goads Draco during the duel, it's not because he really believes the rumours. It's simply because this man is hurt, worried and anxious enough to try to make sense of everything going wrong in his life.

Ginny's advice is the one that really strikes him and which helps mend his relationship with his son. He starts showing to Albus that the boy who lived is someone very far removed from his father, who unconditionally loves him, so much that he will take on the killing curse like his own mother did.

So rant about the Cursed Child for all you want but don't you dare tell me Harry is a bad parent for not being able to understand a teenager who didn't even understand himself.

I absolutely love Cursed Child and YES. To all of this post. Harry is not a bad parent, he’s a GOOD parent with normal human issues that are more intense and complex because of his traumatic background and because he never had a positive parental role model as a child. Albus desperately wants Harry’s love and approval but doesn’t believe he deserves it, because he’s not a hero like his father. And, being a confused and emotional kid, he turns that against Harry like many teenagers. The proof that Harry is a good parent is that he tries as hard as he can–too hard–to parent Albus. He focuses his love in the wrong directions until, through the course of the play, he learns to truly see Albus and give him what he needs. If you think being a good parent means being a perfect parent you’re wrong. 

None of that is particularly subtle, btw. It’s all there in the script. 

Scorpius’ issues with his father are a kind of mirror image of Harry and Albus. (There’s so much mirror/shadow imagery in the play, I love it.) Scorpius, like Albus, grows up under the shadow of his father’s reputation–only Draco’s rep means that Scorpius is seen as evil, rather than a budding hero. And given Draco finds it so hard to talk to him, Scorpius wonders. He wonders if there’s any truth to Draco’s dark reputation. He wonders exactly what his father did during the war. 

And during the Voldemort AU, he learns the truth: that his father is the kind of man who will do what he has to do to survive, what he has to do to protect his family, but not the murderer or torturer or evil dark wizard Scorpius fears. (This is what the scene in Draco’s office is about–Scorpius learning who his father really is.) And by the end of the play, Draco learns to openly display his love for Scorpius and creates a new intimacy between them. 

“I think a lot of this show has to do with making sure everyone knows that someone cares about you. I think that is so important, that’s such a huge part of the human condition. We’re so afraid that we’ll be forgotten. We’re so afraid that no one is thinking about us. We’re so afraid that no one cares. And what I think the biggest themes of this play is, is just to remind people that no, people do care about you. But more importantly, to remind people that you need to tell the people you care about that you care about them.”

Broadway year two cast: