Harry Potter and The Cursed Child
After a few hours of wandering and shopping, we zipped over towards the Princess Theatre for one of the other main reasons we came to Melbourne: to see the Harry Potter and The Cursed Child play. As someone who hasn’t seen a lot of non-musical live theatre, this was an awesome experience.
We had signed up for the Sunday double-header, where the matinee performance was of part one, and the evening of part two, so after a somewhat active four days we were looking forward to being restfully entertained.
Beforehand though it was necessary to have a ‘light lunch’. Around the corner, we found some churros at Butcher’s Diner, which was just what we needed.
I won’t describe the play in detail, other than to say I was amazed by the stage/set, the way that lighting and special effects were used, and I really enjoyed being thrust back into the HP universe (as did Mrs Excel). I think that it wouldn’t be quite as special/enjoyable to someone who wasn’t a Harry Potter fan, so if you’re on the edge about going, that might be a useful deciding factor for you before making the investment in the reasonably expensive tickets. Happy to answer any follow-up Qs.
In between the two seatings, Mrs Excel had booked us for a dinner around the corner at
Rice Paper Scissors. It was probably my favourite food from our whole time in Melbourne. And we weren't the only ones to think so - make sure you book in advance:
We started with Lychee and ‘You Can’t Touch This’ mocktails:
Followed by a selection of share plates including Thai Chicken, Bao, Lamb Ribs, ‘Crying Tiger’ Beef, and BBQ Prawns.
I’d strongly recommend this place, especially for a mid-show booking of the sort we enjoyed.
With a little more time to kill we then went for a stroll and wound up at Boilermaker House for some cheeses. I was blown away by the chef’s cheese knowledgeability and the blue cheese was the nicest that either of us had ever enjoyed. Wish I wrote down what it was!
We then returned for part two of the play, before heading back to the Novotel for the last night there.