Potted Potter 2024 - Interview with Brendan Murphy

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Fri 10 May 2024 - Sun 26 May 2024

Do you want to relive all the fun and adventure of the entire Harry Potter series but don’t have 20 hours to burn? Well, have I got a treat for you! From the wondrous minds of Scott Hoatson and Brendan Murphy comes Potted Potter, a show that compacts all seven Harry Potter books down to 70 minutes. This results in a mile-a-minute laughs for an outrageous show. Weekend Notes caught up with one of the actors, Brendan Murphy, to talk about his experiences with Potted Potter and other projects he has for crunching a whole series into bite-size pieces.



Weekend Notes: How did the show, Potted Potter, first come to creation?

Brendan Murphy: The show was originally written by Dan Clarkson and Jeff Turner back in 2005 or 2006 to entertain people who were queuing up to buy the final book. From there it became an Edinburgh show and has just moved from strength to strength and is now performed all over the world, so we’re really happy to be bringing it to Australia for its 3rd Australian Tour.

WN: And how long have you been involved with the production?

BM: I’ve been working on it for a few years on and off. I joined, maybe in 2015 or 2016. We tend to do the show every Christmas in the US so I did a few Christmas runs of the show. This is one of my first outings to somewhere sunny. We did do a Las Vegas run but that was out of season.

WN: Tell me a bit more about your role in the show and any involvement you have in production.

BM: So it’s a 2 hander show. It’s basically 2 idiots retelling all 7 books in 70 minutes so it’s kind of an impossible task. The other performer in the show Scott Hoatson plays Harry Potter and I play everyone else. It’s very fast-paced; there are a lot of quick changes and it includes every character you can think of that we can manage to cram in during that time.



WN: To be playing everyone else in the Harry Potter series you must be going through a huge gamut of different voices. How do you keep everything straight and ensure you're putting on the right voice to the right character at the right time?

BM: We’ve been doing it a little while now, as long as I’ve got the right prop or right costume in my hands, I tend to fall in the right character but there are certainly some moments where it might go wrong and there’s always an opportunity for ad-libbing or audience interaction. Every performance tends to be a little bit fresh and we react to what the audience are giving us.

WN: What is your favourite voice to embody?

BM: I particularly like Hagrid. Scott is himself Scottish, so I get to do a very authentic Scottish accent right back at him. That I particularly enjoy.

WN: How long has Scott Hoatson been involved with the production?

BM: Scott joined around the same time I did. We’ve been doing it on and off for several years now. We’re also joined by Jacob who’s our swing on the show, so he’s actually covering both roles. So, he’s essentially learned the entire script and is flipping between roles depending on which night he’s on.

WN: Are you involved with any other aspects of the production?

BM: I’m only involved as one of the actors however working on Potted Potter has inspired me to write two of my own parody shows. I’ve written one which is a one-man Friends parody, telling all 10 seasons of Friends through the eyes of the barista, Gunther. I have another one called Buffy Revamped which is a one-man Buffy the Vampire Slayer show, retelling all 7 seasons through the eyes of Spike. So hopefully those two shows will be coming to Australia soon.

WN: With a game of quidditch and a fire-breathing dragon, there must be a great deal of props involved with the show.

BM: There is indeed. Luckily, we have a great stage manager who keeps it all in check and resets all the props in the exact right place before every show.

WN: If there is one thing you could say about the show to entice people through the door what would it be?

BM: I would say if you are a fan of Harry Potter, you don’t have to have to be an absolute Harry Potter nerd, you don’t need to know everything inside and out but if you like Harry Potter then come down and see it. There’s a live game of Quidditch there’s a fire-breathing dragon, there are over 300 characters over a 70-minute stage comedy. There are prizes to be won and it’s a good show for the whole family.



Potted Potter is currently in the midst of its Australian tour. It will be performing at the Adelaide Festival Centre on the 10th, 11th and 12th of May before moving on to Perth from the 23rd to the 26th of May. You can find more info and book tickets here .

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