LONDON: The new Harry Potter play in London has removed the use of live owls from the production.
The decision follows an incident during the first show when an owl escaped into the auditorium.
The bird had failed to return to its handler after making a brief flight during a scene.
Meanwhile, J.K. Rowling urged fans not to ruin the magic by letting its secrets out.
“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” has had its first preview at London’s Palace Theatre, with audience members given buttons urging them to #keepthesecret.
In a recorded message, Rowling encouraged theatergoers to “let audiences enjoy ‘Cursed Child’ with all the surprises that we’ve built into the story.”
Rowling has long striven to spare fans spoilers for her immensely popular saga. When the final book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” was released in 2007, the author pleaded with readers not to give away the secret of whether Harry lived or died.
“Cursed Child” — staged as two plays — picks up the story 19 years after the climax of the final novel. Its characters include the adult Harry and his younger son, Albus Severus Potter, a student at Hogwarts school.
A synopsis says Harry is now an overworked civil servant in the Ministry of Magic, while his son is struggling “with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted.”
The Daily Telegraph said Wednesday that audience members were “in raptures” after Tuesday’s performance, the first night of almost eight weeks of previews.
Use of live owls dropped from Harry Potter play
Use of live owls dropped from Harry Potter play
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
