PBS高端访谈:JK罗琳携最新《哈利波特》话剧亮相

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　　And so is Jeffrey Brown, with a look at the latest version of Potter-mania from his recent trip to the United Kingdom.

　　At Platform 9 3/4 in London's King Cross Station, it's time again for fans to take the leap into the magical world of Harry Potter

　　the young wizard of eight films, and, of course, the books that have sold in the hundreds of millions.

　　Now Harry is back, quite a bit older and with children of his own, played by actor Jamie Parker,

　　and for the first time on stage, in the new play told in two parts, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," now at the Palace Theatre in London's West End.

　　You have been amazing for years at keeping Harry Potter secrets, so you didn't spoil the books for readers who came after you.

　　It's still in previews and all very hush-hush, so, no, we can't show you scenes.

　　Potter author J.K. Rowling, who worked on this with an experienced theater team, is begging fans not to spoil the plot.

　　So I'm asking you one more time to keep secrets and let audiences enjoyed "Cursed Child" with all the surprises that we have built into the story.

　　Time Out London staff writer Kate Lloyd got a look, but wasn't giving much away.

　　It felt like going to the greatest hit show of your favorite pop star.

　　It just felt like everyone there had read the books, loved them,

　　and now was reliving the experience with a bit of new stuff, but it was very much rooted in the old stories.

　　Just a block away, we saw the Harry Potter phenomenon in action, at an exhibition of graphic² art and original film props⁴ now at the House of MinaLima gallery.

　　Miraphora Mina and her partner Eduardo Lima helped create the Potter look for the films. Her theory of Potter's appeal?

　　So everything you see story wise and prop³ wise, you as an audience can think, oh, yes,

　　I'm going to get my letter, or I'm going to read that newspaper.

　　It's not a completely reinvented world. It's kind of the real world and shifted about 20 percent.

　　In many ways, perhaps, it's more a re-imagining than a re-invention,

　　something we found some 400 hundred miles to the north, at the source of all things Potter.

　　The story of Harry Potter itself of course comes with its own legends about where it was written, what it's all based on.

　　And a lot of it began here in Edinburgh, Scotland.

　　So, Eric, American student wearing a cape⁵.

　　Ah, it's a dream job really.

　　Dream job. Dream job. Why?

　　Read all the books, seen all the movies, played all the video games, bought all the toys since I was a little kid.

　　Twenty-two-year-old Eric Geistfeld of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, is finishing his studies at the University of Edinburgh,

　　with a degree in physics, real magic, as he told me. But he may be an even bigger student of J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter.

　　We followed as he led a group along the city's Potter Trail.

　　It includes the famed Greyfriars Kirkyard, the cemetery⁶ where J.K. Rowling gathered names for characters.

　　Well, she obviously got the name from this grave because, in the mid⁷ to late 1990s,

　　there used to be a bench that rang along this wall in Greyfriars Kirkyard,

　　and she would come here and do a lot of the brainstorming⁸ for her first Harry Potter novel within these very walls.

　　And just beyond that.

　　Hogwarts, the wizarding boarding school.

　　George Heriot's School, the inspiration for the mythical⁹ Hogwarts School of Witchcraft¹⁰ and Wizardry.

　　Then there's the Elephant House Cafe, where, as all Potter-heads know,

　　Rowling, then a poor single mom, would sit for hours with one cup of coffee and write.

　　Standing¹¹ over Victoria Street, which Rowling turned into a kind of wizard mall in her books,

　　our guide said the sense of place is a key to understanding the world of Harry Potter.

　　J.K. Rowling came here in the mid to late 1990s and just saw something in this street,

　　sort of felt a magic of her own and decided¹² to base an entire location off of it in the books.

　　The history of Edinburgh has really bled into Harry Potter, its settings, its characters, and sort of a lot of the themes of Harry Potter as well.

　　Back in London, where things can look plenty Potter-esque as well,

　　Financial Times journalist Jenny Lee told me the spell for her has always been in the storytelling.

　　A really epic¹³ piece of storytelling, which is incredibly compelling and unlike anything I had ever read before.

　　And as a playwright¹⁴ herself, she's interested to see how it works in a new form.

　　There is an excitement, not a hype, but an excitement around the fact that it is theater,

　　that people can come to the theater, and in the same way that she got a new generation of kids reading,

　　that we may get a new generation of kids coming to theater for the first time.

　　This could be a way to bring young people to the theater?

　　Absolutely, I think so. I think that this is not going to be published as a novel. It's going to be published as a play text.

　　And if people can't make it to the theater, they might just have to buy the play text and read that.

　　And that could be a young person's first encounter with that medium, with the play text itself. And that excites me.

　　Of course, Eric Geistfeld and no doubt millions of others want more than the text, but the first batch¹⁵ of tickets sold out almost immediately.

　　Accio tickets. Oh. Accio is a summoning spell, so whenever you wave your wand and you yell accio, it will fly to you. So…

　　Accio tickets? Accio tickets. But they haven't come yet?

　　They haven't come yet. I assume they're flying from London to here, so it might take a little while, but I hope they're on their way.

　　Good luck.

　　Thank you.

　　From Edinburgh and London, I'm Jeffrey Brown for the "PBS NewsHour." undefined

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