Potter parody fuelled by love and caffeine

Playing Harry is “the easy part”, says James, whose colleague Delme Thomas has the mammoth task of playing everybody else. “His Hermione is brilliant,” says James with a giggle. For Potted Potter each book is allocated roughly 10 minutes, so it really is an abridged version, but one that gives the gist of the action, says James. “We do the main plots of each book and then we concentrate on the bits we find funny and that we can make jokes about. We do them hard and fast.“We have a lot of coffee beforehand, but once we are up there, there’s no stopping us!”Obviously Harry Potter’s best friends, Hermione and Ron, feature large in Potted Potter but all the main characters from Hagrid to Dumbledore are present, although Ben’s Dumbledore is different to the character in the films!There are lots of spells, and a game of quidditch, with its flying broomsticks, quaffles, bludgers, and the Golden Snitch which involves the audience. “It’s great fun,” says James. He points out that even people who haven’t read the books or seen the films – difficult to imagine – will still enjoy this madcap caper, as it has its own internal structure and logic.