How did "the friendship between the two lads" become "explicitly romantic"? Scorbus: A deep dive
Upon theatre reopening, we had news that Scorbus is as good as canon in the re-worked one-part version of Cursed Child. It has us feeling very mixed feelings[i]. We want to feel joy, but time has taught us to always be critical and we have an underlying feeling that we are still being queer baited. This piece dives into scorbus past and present to try to tackle why this decision was made.
Part 1: Scorbus in the two-part play
The original London cast and the material
The original material of the play (we’re talking the script, not acting choices) is heavily focused on Albus’s character arch, with Scorpius’s and Harry’s relationships with him involved in moving the plot along. Albus is given Delphi as a love interest, and this was played off as feasible by the original cast, Sam Clemmett’s Albus all puppy dog eyes and cheesy flirting. Scorpius is given Rose as a love interest, who was always put across as the one person that Scorpius fancied, with Anthony Boyle's Scorpius flirting along with it.
The material gives us two best friends in Albus and Scorpius, going on a daddy-issue fuelled adventure, spurred on by a flirty villain in Delphi. Scorpius mentions or talks to Rose in 7 scenes, in the final one saying that he has just asked her out and fancies her. This is a very ‘no homo’ moment that many saw came out of nowhere[ii]. It was seen as a missed opportunity for queer representation and made the show a queer bait[iii],[iv].
Women are very much accessories in the material of CC, and there are very few women who exist without being a love interest to a man as their main personality. Without Scorpius asking Rose out, she has very little to do in the show. The same could be said for Ginny, who also mainly exists to be a wife and support to Harry.
Articles described Scorpius as “girl crazy”[v]. The possibility of Scorbus being cannon was ignored by the press. Many of us felt ourselves being represented by the characters as baby gays, but the relationship with Scorpius and Rose was always considered to trump all. Heteronormativity worked hard in year 1. This was the year of the will they/won’t they Scorose kiss. Articles lapped this up[vi]. In fact, the potential for a relationship between Albus and Delphi was considered more feasible than a similar relationship with Scorpius[vii].
The idea that Scorbus could be cannon was rarely explored with the original London cast in mainstream press and as fans we were invalidated about our feelings about it. Not so much by the cast, they were always patient about it, but by the general franchise. Of course, this is partially because the British theatre press would never. And when they did, we were met with quotes like this:
The certainty of the platonic friendship was always apparent. Sam described the relationship as “the friendship between the two lads”[ix].
Some glimmers of validation
In the original cast, first cover Scorpius was played by the wonderful Jenet Le Lacheur, who was the first one to acknowledge that the relationship of Albus and Scorpius could be interpreted in different ways. It’s important to note that Le Lacheur didn't say “it is gay”, she said you can see it that way if you wanted to: It's the beauty of theatre.
A Fanon side point: Scorbus has always been a popular ship, even before CC was released. This can be seen in the fan works, where on Archive of our Own alone, there are 4005 scorbus works[xi] verses 1343 scorose works[xii]. I don’t mention this to compare them as ships, but it is interesting that despite the continuous clarification that Scorbus are not romantically attracted to each other, fans have always seen something there.
Cast 2 in London
During 2017/2018 in London, there was major changes in the artistic choices of the actors. Both Samuel Blenkein and Theo Ancient were more receptive to listening to us, who we were, how we saw their characters and most importantly why.[xiii] This freedom may have been influenced by a reduction in mainstream press attention but to put it bluntly, they played it gayer, but the material was the same. We kept going back for a snippet of that same scene that would feed us a little more of a hint that their relationship was something more. Year 2 was a little queer bubble, but I don’t think it influenced the overall franchise.
A few rogue shows
In year three, the narrative continued similarly, with a battle of wills at the centre of the show leaving Scorbus totally up to interpretation. I mention this year because, for whatever reason, there were two full shows with first cover Scorbus on. Jordan Bamford and Ryan Mackay gave everything. They took the material and made it so, so gay; Scorpius sitting on Albus’s lap gay[xiv]. But it was the same material. They showed it could be done, but the no homo Rose line at the end made very little sense.
New York original cast
In my opinion, this is where things get interesting. The original cast from London moved to the first run in New York. There were minor script changes, but these were about clarity, they didn’t change up any relationships. A few directional choices did change their relationship: Albus was softer, and he and Scorpius were generally a bit more tactile.
The most evident change that happened in New York did not happen on stage. It was the American press, who would dare to ask.
It’s important to recognise that we don’t know what Anthony and Sam think. All we have are snippets of interviews, impersonal conversations at stage door and our interpretations of their performances. However, this shift is important because the franchise PR allowed it to happen. I also think it’s beautiful that they may have started to become more open to a relationship between Albus and Scorpius. It’s beautiful because they’re actors that will take this experience and mindset to other roles and representation will still matter.
Expansion of the Cursed Child universe
Since its opening on Broadway, CC has opened in Australia, Hamburg, and San Francisco. The nature of Albus and Scorpius’s relationship has always been a point of conversation. Something that I find interesting is an interview with John Tiffany, the shows director who is openly gay, prior to the Australian branch opening:
I think this quote is a product of gen x queers living through over-sexualised gay representation and confuses the sudden cannon scorbus in the US. Why does Albus and Scorpius being romantically involved with each other mean they are being sexualised? Why does Scorpius having a crush on Rose not become the story? Why are we ok with Albus crushing on a girl who is grooming him (Delphi) over him having a crush on a boy? It’s a really sad quote. But it does show where scorbus were in 2018. Platonic according to the franchise.
Part 2: Scorbus in the one-part play
The original London cast and the material
The original material of the play (we’re talking the script, not acting choices) is heavily focused on Albus’s character arch, with Scorpius’s and Harry’s relationships with him involved in moving the plot along. Albus is given Delphi as a love interest, and this was played off as feasible by the original cast, Sam Clemmett’s Albus all puppy dog eyes and cheesy flirting. Scorpius is given Rose as a love interest, who was always put across as the one person that Scorpius fancied, with Anthony Boyle's Scorpius flirting along with it.
The material gives us two best friends in Albus and Scorpius, going on a daddy-issue fuelled adventure, spurred on by a flirty villain in Delphi. Scorpius mentions or talks to Rose in 7 scenes, in the final one saying that he has just asked her out and fancies her. This is a very ‘no homo’ moment that many saw came out of nowhere[ii]. It was seen as a missed opportunity for queer representation and made the show a queer bait[iii],[iv].
Women are very much accessories in the material of CC, and there are very few women who exist without being a love interest to a man as their main personality. Without Scorpius asking Rose out, she has very little to do in the show. The same could be said for Ginny, who also mainly exists to be a wife and support to Harry.
Articles described Scorpius as “girl crazy”[v]. The possibility of Scorbus being cannon was ignored by the press. Many of us felt ourselves being represented by the characters as baby gays, but the relationship with Scorpius and Rose was always considered to trump all. Heteronormativity worked hard in year 1. This was the year of the will they/won’t they Scorose kiss. Articles lapped this up[vi]. In fact, the potential for a relationship between Albus and Delphi was considered more feasible than a similar relationship with Scorpius[vii].
The idea that Scorbus could be cannon was rarely explored with the original London cast in mainstream press and as fans we were invalidated about our feelings about it. Not so much by the cast, they were always patient about it, but by the general franchise. Of course, this is partially because the British theatre press would never. And when they did, we were met with quotes like this:
“The friendship’s purely platonic. I do think they love one another — that’s evident in what they do and say. But it’s not a sexual or romantic love.”
– Anthony Boyle, The Times, 2016[viii]
The certainty of the platonic friendship was always apparent. Sam described the relationship as “the friendship between the two lads”[ix].
Some glimmers of validation
In the original cast, first cover Scorpius was played by the wonderful Jenet Le Lacheur, who was the first one to acknowledge that the relationship of Albus and Scorpius could be interpreted in different ways. It’s important to note that Le Lacheur didn't say “it is gay”, she said you can see it that way if you wanted to: It's the beauty of theatre.
“They’re 14 years old and still exploring who they are. It’s up to each individual Scorpius and Albus combination to play it how they feel it should be done. I think everything in the text is wonderfully elastic and can be read in different ways, and you can play with a definite possibility of there being an attraction between Scorpius and Albus, and also between Scorpius and Rose Granger-Weasley.”
– Jenet Le Lacheur, Beyond the Binary, 2016[x]
A Fanon side point: Scorbus has always been a popular ship, even before CC was released. This can be seen in the fan works, where on Archive of our Own alone, there are 4005 scorbus works[xi] verses 1343 scorose works[xii]. I don’t mention this to compare them as ships, but it is interesting that despite the continuous clarification that Scorbus are not romantically attracted to each other, fans have always seen something there.
Cast 2 in London
During 2017/2018 in London, there was major changes in the artistic choices of the actors. Both Samuel Blenkein and Theo Ancient were more receptive to listening to us, who we were, how we saw their characters and most importantly why.[xiii] This freedom may have been influenced by a reduction in mainstream press attention but to put it bluntly, they played it gayer, but the material was the same. We kept going back for a snippet of that same scene that would feed us a little more of a hint that their relationship was something more. Year 2 was a little queer bubble, but I don’t think it influenced the overall franchise.
A few rogue shows
In year three, the narrative continued similarly, with a battle of wills at the centre of the show leaving Scorbus totally up to interpretation. I mention this year because, for whatever reason, there were two full shows with first cover Scorbus on. Jordan Bamford and Ryan Mackay gave everything. They took the material and made it so, so gay; Scorpius sitting on Albus’s lap gay[xiv]. But it was the same material. They showed it could be done, but the no homo Rose line at the end made very little sense.
New York original cast
In my opinion, this is where things get interesting. The original cast from London moved to the first run in New York. There were minor script changes, but these were about clarity, they didn’t change up any relationships. A few directional choices did change their relationship: Albus was softer, and he and Scorpius were generally a bit more tactile.
The most evident change that happened in New York did not happen on stage. It was the American press, who would dare to ask.
“And while Boyle has always seen the relationship as purely platonic, he’s open-minded. “If people read into it in a different way, I don't want to comment on the art,” he said. “If people see that and take something from that and see themselves in it, represented in it in a good way, I don't want to rain on anyone's parade.””
- Buzzfeed, 2018[xv]
““It's quite an important thing to have two young men talking openly about emotions without it being romantic,” he says. And unfortunately, it takes a play for us to imagine that reality. “But then on the other hand, maybe, I dunno, maybe it would be more powerful if they were fucking.””
- GQ, 2018[xvi]
It’s important to recognise that we don’t know what Anthony and Sam think. All we have are snippets of interviews, impersonal conversations at stage door and our interpretations of their performances. However, this shift is important because the franchise PR allowed it to happen. I also think it’s beautiful that they may have started to become more open to a relationship between Albus and Scorpius. It’s beautiful because they’re actors that will take this experience and mindset to other roles and representation will still matter.
Expansion of the Cursed Child universe
Since its opening on Broadway, CC has opened in Australia, Hamburg, and San Francisco. The nature of Albus and Scorpius’s relationship has always been a point of conversation. Something that I find interesting is an interview with John Tiffany, the shows director who is openly gay, prior to the Australian branch opening:
Tiffany, who is himself gay, said it “would not be appropriate” in the Cursed Child, which begins when Scorpius and Albus are 11 and ends when they are 15. “We don’t say how [Scorpius] is going to carry on with the rest of his life,” he says.
“It is a love story between Scorpius and Albus in lots of ways,” he adds. “But that does not mean it’s sexual. I suppose the whole queerbaiting thing is just people saying ‘I want more representation’ and ‘I want explicit representation’. But also that would become the story.”
- 2018, The Guardian[xvii]
I think this quote is a product of gen x queers living through over-sexualised gay representation and confuses the sudden cannon scorbus in the US. Why does Albus and Scorpius being romantically involved with each other mean they are being sexualised? Why does Scorpius having a crush on Rose not become the story? Why are we ok with Albus crushing on a girl who is grooming him (Delphi) over him having a crush on a boy? It’s a really sad quote. But it does show where scorbus were in 2018. Platonic according to the franchise.
Part 2: Scorbus in the one-part play
How did this relationship become “explicitly romantic”?
Full disclosure that I haven’t seen the new version of CC and will never be paying to go now, but I’ve double-checked these with people who have and by means of consuming the new version of the show for free.
The main changes that relate to Albus and Scorpius are:
- In the hospital scene with Albus and Harry, Albus says you shouldn’t have tried to separate us, Scorpius really matters to me, and Harry says yeah, I'm starting to understand that.
- In the torture scene, Delphi refers to them differently. She used to say your weakness is friendship but now she's saying your weakness is love. She doesn't say that this is “just like your father” anymore because the relationships Harry was fighting for were different.
- When Delphi says oh you don't want me to hurt your friend, she lives a gap before friend.
- They've also removed all references to Albus having a crush on Delphi.
- They've changed the scene after Scorpius asks Rose out and interestingly, this happened in 2 steps. In the first preview, Scorpius asked Rose out as usual and says he is building a palace of love. A few months later (I’m unsure of the exact date this was done), Scorpius says he asked Rose to be his friend and is building a palace of harmony. In both versions, Albus asks if that’s who he wants in his palace and Scorpius replied “yes, isn’t it?”. When Rose appears, she says the original line about making it weird and then looks at Albus to ask if he was OK. There is no flirting from Rose and all mention of Albus getting a girlfriend is gone.
- In the Albus/Scorpius hug at the end of the scene, Scorpius says “I wasn't sure whether we should, in this new version of us” he doesn't say “I had in my head” like previously.
- In the final scene, Harry and Albus talk about their struggles, and Albus mention that Scorpius is “the most important person” in his life and is going to be forever. Harry replies that it’s a good thing and that he really likes him, in a really coming out kind of way, with the pauses and intention.
They didn’t just take away to shorten the show, they added gayer subtext.
These small changes change the tone from heteronormative to a teenager coming out to his dad and two boys crushing on each other. Everything we ever wanted from Act 4, Scene 14 was there. I think that production misunderstood what fans were asking for when we were accusing them of queerbaiting. We weren’t suggesting that 15-year-olds should start making out on stage. We wanted this promise, the freedom to keep it truly open-ended, and a continuation of the romantic love that so many of us saw throughout the play. Do they even have Albus kind of coming out? This is wild to me. I didn’t even believe it until I read the reviews and heard for myself because we’d been so dismissed by almost everyone for so many years. I thought they would take it away by press night.
The reviews are what really swayed it for me:
These are mainstream press outlets saying that this looks gay. The New York Times called it “explicitly romantic”[xix]. Mugglenet, who were all over Scorose, were posting articles about Scorbus being a missed opportunity[xx]. The straights were convinced: It must be gay on purpose. Even if the production asked the news outlets to mention this to appeal to a disenfranchised queer audience, why did the production do this? I have some ideas about this, but I would love to sit down with somebody with decision-making powers within production to hear why. It just feels obscene to me.
Part 3: Why do I think this had happened?
The improved representation of queer folk
A lot has happened in the world of LGBT representation since 2018 and the queer, millennial Harry Potter generation has really started having the power to create in the mainstream. These past 4 years have been full of joy and finally seeing ourselves represented along with hard work uncoupling ourselves from our childhood problematic favourites. It would be impossible to remove the decision to make Albus and Scorpius’s relationship more than platonic from the media shift.
Since 2018, varied and more realistic LGBT representation has been propelled into the mainstream. TV shows like Pose, It’s A Sin, One Day at A Time, Sex Education and The Haunting of Bly Manor have given us varied LGBT characters that exist without just being queer or it being all about sex. Disclosure is a fantastic mainstream resource that has educated the masses. Mainstream theatre has caught up too, with the recent productions of The Inheritance, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Bare, The Prom and The View Upstairs fitting into demand for realistic LGBT representation and the increased criticism of lazy writing, such as the weird gay jokes in Dear Evan Hansen.
Until the theatre shutdown in 2020, Cursed Child was chugging along as a 2-part show and, because it was Harry Potter, it was partially immune from any new criticism. In fact, the production was moving up and had cast several trans performers in leading roles for example with Nyx Calder began their run as Scorpius in February 2020 (then COVID happened):
I mention these castings because it’s cool and important. Despite LGBT folk probably being more receptive to the possibility of a romantic Scorbus, every cast until recently was working with the same material.
We also cannot ignore the fact that JKR has come out as a TERF, thereby alienating a lot of Potter fans[xxii].
Removal of heteronormativity
As mentioned earlier, Cursed Child does not contain well-rounded women. It is interesting that this shift to making Scorbus romantic has happened mostly due to the romantic appeal of the women- Rose and Delphi- being taken out. Press is now suddenly talking about Scorbus as if it’s canon due to a few added lines but the behaviour of scorbus has always been as they are. It’s insane that to make it “explicitly romantic”, all they had to do was remove the mention of them having crushes on the girls.
As a queer person, it’s why this show had me feeling queer baited. It showed me that bi people are not represented in anything and if there is a potential heterosexual romance on the cards, this is the automatic goal. When none of the relationships were canon, we were told by the straight creatives that this can’t be gay because they have crushes on girls, even though in our eyes they clearly also had a crush on each other. The meaning of what Albus and Scorpius are saying to each other has always been there, all the production team had to do was remove the heteronormativity and you get a gay play.
JKR coming out as a TERF
From late 2019 onwards, we learned that JKR is a TERF and the opposite of an ally to the LGBT community. We kind of already knew this because the progression in the Potterverse is always so retrospective[xxiii], like gay Dumbledore[xxiv] and Black Hermione[xxv] and the original text is problematic in so many ways [xxvi]but now we really know it. I hate that her violence has taken away the joy I should feel about my favourite ship becoming canon. I’m just suspicious. We were queer baited for 7 years and now the show is suddenly queer, with no official response about it.
I really, really hope that this isn’t a decision from the high and mighty to draw back the queer audience and undo some of JKRs words. It doesn’t undo them. It just doesn’t feel like it’s a creative direction the production was going in before the shutdown.
Scorbus is and will always be a missed opportunity. In 2016, a romantic (but not sexual) relationship between two boys would have been ground-breaking to see on stage but that time has passed. I do hope that baby queers who go and see the show can see themselves represented beautifully. It is a lovely thing that will do some good, but it doesn’t make sense. Did Thorne and Tiffany just go rogue? Was it an instruction from the top to quiet the queers? Was it a response to the general increased LGBT representation in theatre? Did the queer cast and creatives say something and get listened to? I’d love to hear some input from the production team about it or some acknowledgment because this decision which should be inciting joy feels manipulative and we’ve all done too much work to be played with any longer.
Scorbus forever <3
_________________
References:
[i] https://twitter.com/FaithNoMoar/status/1459370155218251781?s=20
[ii] https://www.hypable.com/harry-potter-cursed-child-lgbtq-scorpus/
[iii] https://www.vox.com/2016/9/4/12534818/harry-potter-cursed-child-rowling-queerbaiting
[iv] https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/aug/16/harry-potter-possible-example-queerbaiting-cursed-child
[v] Article/advert outside of the Lyric Theatre. I can't find the link for this one- sorry!
[vi] https://www.hypable.com/scorpius-rose-kiss-cursed-child/
[vii] Valentine poll:
[viii] https://www.mugglenet.com/2016/08/anthony-boyle-on-scorpius-malfoy-he-has-so-much-heart/ - The original link is broken.
[ix] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24l4gjYmIm0&ab_channel=Broadwaycom
[x] Original link is broken, but the quotes are here: https://www.hypable.com/cursed-child-scorpius-albus-gay-relationship-maybe/
[xi] https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Scorpius%20Malfoy*s*Albus%20Severus%20Potter/works?page=1 Number of works if you have logged into a profile to include works locked by some authors.
[xii] https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Scorpius%20Malfoy*s*Rose%20Weasley/works Number of works if you have logged into a profile to include works locked by some authors.
[xiii] https://twitter.com/Theo_Ancient/status/996066078534062080?s=20
[xiv] https://twitter.com/ScorbusUpdate/status/1094195803613220865?s=20
[xv] https://www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/louispeitzman/harry-potter-cursed-child-anthony-boyle-scorpius-malfoy?utm_term=4ldqpgc&bftwnews=&__twitter_impression=true
[xvi] https://www.gq.com/story/anthony-boyle-the-maybe-bad-boy-of-harry-potter-and-the-cursed-child
[xvii] https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/jul/30/a-whole-new-controversy-harry-potter-and-the-cursed-child-comes-to-australia
[xviii] https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/harry-potter-cursed-child-broadway-review?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter&cid=%7Enewyork%7Enatsoc%7Etwitter%7Eechobox#Echobox=1638928852-1
[xix] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/theater/harry-potter-cursed-child-broadway-review.html?smid=tw-nytimesarts&smtyp=cur
[xx] https://www.mugglenet.com/2021/01/why-scorbus-should-have-been-canon/
[xxi] https://www.smh.com.au/national/magical-feeling-of-casting-off-the-invisibility-cloak-20210328-p57eo8.html
[xxii] https://www.glamour.com/story/a-complete-breakdown-of-the-jk-rowling-transgender-comments-controversy
[xxiii] https://www.bustle.com/p/the-problem-with-jk-rowling-making-things-canon-retroactively-25948
[xxiv] https://www.thecourieronline.co.uk/retrospective-queer-characters-a-sign-of-the-times-or-exploitation-of-the-past/
[xxv] https://www.thebooksmugglers.com/2016/12/characters-not-coloring-book-black-hermione-poor-apology-ingrained-racism-harry-potter.html
[xxvi] https://www.readunwritten.com/2021/01/20/reasons-harry-potter-problematic/
Full disclosure that I haven’t seen the new version of CC and will never be paying to go now, but I’ve double-checked these with people who have and by means of consuming the new version of the show for free.
The main changes that relate to Albus and Scorpius are:
- In the hospital scene with Albus and Harry, Albus says you shouldn’t have tried to separate us, Scorpius really matters to me, and Harry says yeah, I'm starting to understand that.
- In the torture scene, Delphi refers to them differently. She used to say your weakness is friendship but now she's saying your weakness is love. She doesn't say that this is “just like your father” anymore because the relationships Harry was fighting for were different.
- When Delphi says oh you don't want me to hurt your friend, she lives a gap before friend.
- They've also removed all references to Albus having a crush on Delphi.
- They've changed the scene after Scorpius asks Rose out and interestingly, this happened in 2 steps. In the first preview, Scorpius asked Rose out as usual and says he is building a palace of love. A few months later (I’m unsure of the exact date this was done), Scorpius says he asked Rose to be his friend and is building a palace of harmony. In both versions, Albus asks if that’s who he wants in his palace and Scorpius replied “yes, isn’t it?”. When Rose appears, she says the original line about making it weird and then looks at Albus to ask if he was OK. There is no flirting from Rose and all mention of Albus getting a girlfriend is gone.
- In the Albus/Scorpius hug at the end of the scene, Scorpius says “I wasn't sure whether we should, in this new version of us” he doesn't say “I had in my head” like previously.
- In the final scene, Harry and Albus talk about their struggles, and Albus mention that Scorpius is “the most important person” in his life and is going to be forever. Harry replies that it’s a good thing and that he really likes him, in a really coming out kind of way, with the pauses and intention.
They didn’t just take away to shorten the show, they added gayer subtext.
These small changes change the tone from heteronormative to a teenager coming out to his dad and two boys crushing on each other. Everything we ever wanted from Act 4, Scene 14 was there. I think that production misunderstood what fans were asking for when we were accusing them of queerbaiting. We weren’t suggesting that 15-year-olds should start making out on stage. We wanted this promise, the freedom to keep it truly open-ended, and a continuation of the romantic love that so many of us saw throughout the play. Do they even have Albus kind of coming out? This is wild to me. I didn’t even believe it until I read the reviews and heard for myself because we’d been so dismissed by almost everyone for so many years. I thought they would take it away by press night.
The reviews are what really swayed it for me:
The original play hinted that their relationship might be more than just a friendship, but cloaked it in imply-and-deny evasion; in the revised version, it’s a more or less explicit romance. Aparecium! Lumos! What once was hidden has come to light, and the show shines brighter for it.
-Timeout New York, 2021[xviii]
These are mainstream press outlets saying that this looks gay. The New York Times called it “explicitly romantic”[xix]. Mugglenet, who were all over Scorose, were posting articles about Scorbus being a missed opportunity[xx]. The straights were convinced: It must be gay on purpose. Even if the production asked the news outlets to mention this to appeal to a disenfranchised queer audience, why did the production do this? I have some ideas about this, but I would love to sit down with somebody with decision-making powers within production to hear why. It just feels obscene to me.
Part 3: Why do I think this had happened?
The improved representation of queer folk
A lot has happened in the world of LGBT representation since 2018 and the queer, millennial Harry Potter generation has really started having the power to create in the mainstream. These past 4 years have been full of joy and finally seeing ourselves represented along with hard work uncoupling ourselves from our childhood problematic favourites. It would be impossible to remove the decision to make Albus and Scorpius’s relationship more than platonic from the media shift.
Since 2018, varied and more realistic LGBT representation has been propelled into the mainstream. TV shows like Pose, It’s A Sin, One Day at A Time, Sex Education and The Haunting of Bly Manor have given us varied LGBT characters that exist without just being queer or it being all about sex. Disclosure is a fantastic mainstream resource that has educated the masses. Mainstream theatre has caught up too, with the recent productions of The Inheritance, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Bare, The Prom and The View Upstairs fitting into demand for realistic LGBT representation and the increased criticism of lazy writing, such as the weird gay jokes in Dear Evan Hansen.
Until the theatre shutdown in 2020, Cursed Child was chugging along as a 2-part show and, because it was Harry Potter, it was partially immune from any new criticism. In fact, the production was moving up and had cast several trans performers in leading roles for example with Nyx Calder began their run as Scorpius in February 2020 (then COVID happened):
“When I was cast in the role of Scorpius, my identity wasn’t the first thing in question, my ability to portray him was. This opportunity would have been absolutely impossible to conceive of even five years ago for me. And even better, playing this role while living openly as a trans person has resulted in heartfelt messages and outpouring of support, and incredibly touching gestures of solidarity.” – Nyx Calder, 2021, The Sydney Morning Herald[xxi]
I mention these castings because it’s cool and important. Despite LGBT folk probably being more receptive to the possibility of a romantic Scorbus, every cast until recently was working with the same material.
We also cannot ignore the fact that JKR has come out as a TERF, thereby alienating a lot of Potter fans[xxii].
Removal of heteronormativity
As mentioned earlier, Cursed Child does not contain well-rounded women. It is interesting that this shift to making Scorbus romantic has happened mostly due to the romantic appeal of the women- Rose and Delphi- being taken out. Press is now suddenly talking about Scorbus as if it’s canon due to a few added lines but the behaviour of scorbus has always been as they are. It’s insane that to make it “explicitly romantic”, all they had to do was remove the mention of them having crushes on the girls.
As a queer person, it’s why this show had me feeling queer baited. It showed me that bi people are not represented in anything and if there is a potential heterosexual romance on the cards, this is the automatic goal. When none of the relationships were canon, we were told by the straight creatives that this can’t be gay because they have crushes on girls, even though in our eyes they clearly also had a crush on each other. The meaning of what Albus and Scorpius are saying to each other has always been there, all the production team had to do was remove the heteronormativity and you get a gay play.
JKR coming out as a TERF
From late 2019 onwards, we learned that JKR is a TERF and the opposite of an ally to the LGBT community. We kind of already knew this because the progression in the Potterverse is always so retrospective[xxiii], like gay Dumbledore[xxiv] and Black Hermione[xxv] and the original text is problematic in so many ways [xxvi]but now we really know it. I hate that her violence has taken away the joy I should feel about my favourite ship becoming canon. I’m just suspicious. We were queer baited for 7 years and now the show is suddenly queer, with no official response about it.
I really, really hope that this isn’t a decision from the high and mighty to draw back the queer audience and undo some of JKRs words. It doesn’t undo them. It just doesn’t feel like it’s a creative direction the production was going in before the shutdown.
Scorbus is and will always be a missed opportunity. In 2016, a romantic (but not sexual) relationship between two boys would have been ground-breaking to see on stage but that time has passed. I do hope that baby queers who go and see the show can see themselves represented beautifully. It is a lovely thing that will do some good, but it doesn’t make sense. Did Thorne and Tiffany just go rogue? Was it an instruction from the top to quiet the queers? Was it a response to the general increased LGBT representation in theatre? Did the queer cast and creatives say something and get listened to? I’d love to hear some input from the production team about it or some acknowledgment because this decision which should be inciting joy feels manipulative and we’ve all done too much work to be played with any longer.
Scorbus forever <3
_________________
References:
[i] https://twitter.com/FaithNoMoar/status/1459370155218251781?s=20
[ii] https://www.hypable.com/harry-potter-cursed-child-lgbtq-scorpus/
[iii] https://www.vox.com/2016/9/4/12534818/harry-potter-cursed-child-rowling-queerbaiting
[iv] https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/aug/16/harry-potter-possible-example-queerbaiting-cursed-child
[v] Article/advert outside of the Lyric Theatre. I can't find the link for this one- sorry!
[vi] https://www.hypable.com/scorpius-rose-kiss-cursed-child/
[vii] Valentine poll:
[viii] https://www.mugglenet.com/2016/08/anthony-boyle-on-scorpius-malfoy-he-has-so-much-heart/ - The original link is broken.
[ix] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24l4gjYmIm0&ab_channel=Broadwaycom
[x] Original link is broken, but the quotes are here: https://www.hypable.com/cursed-child-scorpius-albus-gay-relationship-maybe/
[xi] https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Scorpius%20Malfoy*s*Albus%20Severus%20Potter/works?page=1 Number of works if you have logged into a profile to include works locked by some authors.
[xii] https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Scorpius%20Malfoy*s*Rose%20Weasley/works Number of works if you have logged into a profile to include works locked by some authors.
[xiii] https://twitter.com/Theo_Ancient/status/996066078534062080?s=20
[xiv] https://twitter.com/ScorbusUpdate/status/1094195803613220865?s=20
[xv] https://www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/louispeitzman/harry-potter-cursed-child-anthony-boyle-scorpius-malfoy?utm_term=4ldqpgc&bftwnews=&__twitter_impression=true
[xvi] https://www.gq.com/story/anthony-boyle-the-maybe-bad-boy-of-harry-potter-and-the-cursed-child
[xvii] https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/jul/30/a-whole-new-controversy-harry-potter-and-the-cursed-child-comes-to-australia
[xviii] https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/harry-potter-cursed-child-broadway-review?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter&cid=%7Enewyork%7Enatsoc%7Etwitter%7Eechobox#Echobox=1638928852-1
[xix] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/theater/harry-potter-cursed-child-broadway-review.html?smid=tw-nytimesarts&smtyp=cur
[xx] https://www.mugglenet.com/2021/01/why-scorbus-should-have-been-canon/
[xxi] https://www.smh.com.au/national/magical-feeling-of-casting-off-the-invisibility-cloak-20210328-p57eo8.html
[xxii] https://www.glamour.com/story/a-complete-breakdown-of-the-jk-rowling-transgender-comments-controversy
[xxiii] https://www.bustle.com/p/the-problem-with-jk-rowling-making-things-canon-retroactively-25948
[xxiv] https://www.thecourieronline.co.uk/retrospective-queer-characters-a-sign-of-the-times-or-exploitation-of-the-past/
[xxv] https://www.thebooksmugglers.com/2016/12/characters-not-coloring-book-black-hermione-poor-apology-ingrained-racism-harry-potter.html
[xxvi] https://www.readunwritten.com/2021/01/20/reasons-harry-potter-problematic/
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