Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two

The script was written by playwright Jack Thorne, based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany (the director), and Thorne. Rowling is credited for the 'original new story' — she developed the concept and the story — but she did not write the script itself, which is Thorne's work. The play is officially considered the eighth Harry Potter story.

The Cursed Child won nine Olivier Awards at the 2017 ceremony — the record for the most Olivier Awards won by any single production at one ceremony. The awards included Best New Play, Best Director, Best Lighting Design, and Best Set Design. The previous record had stood for decades.

It is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series, billed as 'the eighth story' in Rowling's official framing — but it is a play script, not a novel. The published version is the rehearsal script rather than a traditional narrative, and some readers have found the format a significant departure from the seven novels. It is nonetheless considered part of the canonical Harry Potter story by Rowling and her publishers.

Albus Severus Potter is sorted into Slytherin — the house his parents feared — establishing his separateness from the heroic legacy he has inherited. The play's central emotional premise is that Harry's fame and the expectations it creates are as much a burden to his son as Voldemort's attention was to Harry himself. Albus in Slytherin is the play's clearest symbol of the gap between parent and child.

This is the most frequently debated aspect of the play among Harry Potter fans. The time-turners in the play function differently from the one in Prisoner of Azkaban — they create branching alternate timelines rather than a single fixed loop — which some readers have found inconsistent with the established rules. Thorne has acknowledged the difference but characterised it as a deliberate dramatic choice.

This work is a playscript written for the stage rather than a traditional novel, featuring dialogue and stage directions intended for theatrical performance.

The narrative picks up directly from the epilogue of the final novel in the original series, making familiarity with those events essential for understanding the context and character relationships.

This book is the official script for a major stage production that premiered in London and has since been performed in various international cities, utilizing elaborate stagecraft and illusions to depict magic in a live setting.