Hufflepuffs, the oft-forgotten about house of background characters in the Harry Potter series. The play, written by playwright Matt Cox, follows the story of Wayne Hopkins, a boy whose parents were murdered, and he was sent away to live with his uncle, but without the lightning bolt scar to make him the chosen one. His story mirrors that of Harry Potter but without much of the glamour of being destined for greatness. Throughout his Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic, he experiences both the tumultuous troubles of teenagers and the sad fate of being stuck as a side character in someone else’s story. So, let’s hop on through platform 9¾ and enter into the wacky wizarding world.
The play, starring Trae Reardon as Wayne Hopkins, was chaotically entertaining. Wayne, who feels as if he was born for something more, constantly has his heroic hopes crushed by the onslaught of mediocrity he’s surrounded by in his house of Puffs. Among these average joes, Wayne finds comradery with math prodigy and North Dakota native Oliver Rivers, played by Aiden Doeling, who isn’t quite a prodigy at magic. They are also joined by Megan Jones, played by Reese Richard, who is a goth puff who thinks the sorting hat got it wrong and is desperately trying to be a snake (aka Slytherin). Together, these three puffs battle their way through their magical high school experience as the world becomes increasingly more dangerous due to that annoyingly narcissistic Harry Potter kid.
The show featured lots of laughs, creative use of props, and some interesting sound effects choices. Here are some audience member’s favorite moments.
“As a Harry Potter fan, Puffs incorporated several details of the original movies that made it fun and comical.” -Keagan Kratcha
“Every time the mops made an appearance, I started laughing. It was absolutely hilarious to make main characters on the side.” -Corrine Schmidt
