Meet Albus, Scorpius, and Rose from the Cast of “Cursed Child” Melbourne

by · January 5, 2019

With less than two weeks to go until the previews for the Melbourne production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child begin, it’s time to meet the cast taking on the roles of Albus Severus Potter, Rose Granger-Weasley, and Scorpius Malfoy.

Not only is Sean Rees-Wemyss a huge Harry Potter fan (his cat’s name is Hermione), but he is also originating the role of Albus Severus in Melbourne. However, his journey to the role of Albus wasn’t straightforward. Rees-Wemyss revealed that he was actually thinking of moving on from acting before auditioning for Cursed Child:

My agent sent me an email saying, ‘I know you’re not feeling great about acting right now, but maybe you’d like to do a self-tape audition for this’.

When casting agents passed on his first audition, it may have seemed as though the role of Albus wasn’t in the cards. However, after a further three auditions, the last of which was with John Tiffany and Sonia Freidman in London, he found out he got the part in July 2018.

And for my final audition, they flew me back to London to do it with [original director] John Tiffany and [UK producer] Sonia Friedman and it felt like this very poetic full circle.

For Manali Datar, who will be treading the boards as Rose Granger-Weasley, the news that she had been cast was extra special. She found out that she had been cast in the role the day before her 20th birthday:

I couldn’t tell anyone, which was really difficult. But it was nice to have all my friends around me and know that I had this support group.

Datar has been excited about the character of Rose Granger-Weasley ever since she found out about the tradition of casting actors of color in the role:

When I heard about it, I was like, ‘This would be something I’d love to watch’, to have someone my age, or girls even younger, go to the theatre and see themselves represented on stage.

Taking on the role of fan favorite Scorpius Malfoy, William McKenna found out he had been cast during his final year of school:

Obviously my family knew, but keeping it from my best friends, when everyone is asking what you’re doing next year and talking about gap years and so on, it wasn’t the easiest thing for sure.

Like his castmates, McKenna was a Potter fan before he joined the Melbourne production of Cursed Child:

There’s a video of me and my cousin as six-year-olds, with sticks as wands, running around a holiday house shouting spells at each other, which is one of the fondest memories I have.

As well as preparing to bring Cursed Child to Australia, Datar, McKenna, and Rees-Wemyss also recently revealed their New Year’s resolutions for 2019.

 

 

We can’t wait to see these three in action when Harry Potter and the Cursed Child previews this month at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne. The show officially opens on February 23 and tickets for Part One and Part Two of the magical play can be booked here.