Potted Potter condenses J.K. Rowling's seven Harry Potter books into a 70-minute send-up that whizzes by with laugh-a-minute skits for the whole family. Rebecca Lo drops in on rehearsals.

Harry Potter fans can rejoice. Though Jo Rowling completed seven volumes chronicling the adventures of the English boy wizard years ago and Daniel Radcliffe has moved on to adult roles by now, Potted Potter continues to satisfy diehard devotees of the franchise.

Initially created by English comedians Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner as a party piece performed to entertain people waiting in line for new releases, Potted Potter has gone on to international tours in Toronto, London, Edinburgh, New York City, Melbourne and Adelaide.

Belfast native Gary Trainor and Somerset boy Jesse Briton bring Potted Potter to Hong Kong as part of an Asia Pacific tour produced by Lunchbox Theatrical Productions and ABA Productions.

"I play the Harry Potter expert and Jesse plays everyone else," says Trainor. "All seven books get covered in 70 minutes. The enjoyment comes from doing this in such a short span of time. It's a comedy about the relationship between the characters as well as about the Harry Potter stories."

"There is a lot of slapstick humor that helps to make it an enduring success," says Briton. "It's two friends playing off each other."

Both Trainor and Briton boast theater backgrounds. Trainor grew up reading the books, while Briton crash coursed his way through all eight films once he was cast.

"We have great reverence for the books and their author," adds Trainor. "In London, there were a lot of children in the audience during matinees while we saw mid to late teens in the evenings. But it's not just a children's book. Many of us grew up with Harry. We often see huge grins on young mums in the audience. They just eat it up."

The actors don't see a problem with taking their comedy to cities where English is not most people's first language. "It's a parody of the films," Briton says. "We have a real Quidditch game where the audience gets involved."

"Pop culture references that work in London may not work in Hong Kong," says Trainor. "But there are a lot of gags that can be understood in any language."

Part of the fun in live comedy is that anything could go wrong. Though Potted Potter is scripted, there is still an element of spontaneity that keeps Trainor and Briton on their toes.

"People like the idea of risk," says Briton. "With this show, we deal with it in an active manner. We set up to do the impossible: we have all the same stuff that's in the films but in 70 minutes instead of 20 hours. Our challenge is to do it better than the films."

"Comedy at heart is universal," says Trainor. "We are inviting audiences to own Harry Potter again. We already have a good fan base, and we see the show continuing to change as audiences grow."

(China Daily 09/23/2012 page15)