What’s on our shelves: A cursed child, the most miserable person on Earth, and an un-merry ex-mas…

Performance: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by JK Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany

For years, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has been on my personal “must-see” list. As a long-time Harry Potter fan (a passion I share with my wife), the idea of seeing the “eighth story” live on stage was incredibly exciting. A couple of weekends ago, we finally made it happen, and we went for the full, immersive experience: both parts in a single day.

I am thrilled to report that it did not disappoint.

If you, like us, grew up with the books and have a deep affection for the wizarding world, this show is something truly special. While many of us have had the script on our library shelves since it was published, seeing the story brought to life is an entirely different experience.

Without giving anything away, the true star of the show is the stagecraft. The “magic” you see happen live is genuinely breathtaking. It’s not just a play; it’s a spectacle of illusion, artistry, and pure theatrical wizardry that had us guessing “How did they do that?” from start to finish.

The story itself feels like a proper return to the world we love, focusing on the next generation (Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy are the heart of the show) while respectfully revisiting beloved characters. It’s a compelling look at legacy, friendship, and the parent-child relationships of our favourite heroes.

Seeing both halves in one day is a marathon, but it’s absolutely the way to go if you can. It makes for a completely immersive day, and the cliffhanger at the end of Part One is worth the shared gasp from the audience.

A Quick Bite Between Shows: If you’re doing the two-part day, you’ll have a dinner break. We headed to the nearby 7 Dials Market, which was a fantastic choice. It’s bustling with different food stalls, and we loved being able to share some amazing Lebanese and Indian dishes. It was the perfect quick, delicious, and varied meal to recharge before heading back for Part Two!

The Verdict: For Harry Potter fans, this is a five-star, must-see experience. It’s a beautifully crafted production that captures the original magic of the books and translates it perfectly to the stage. Highly recommended!

Martin Renvoize, Head of Development and Community Engagement – Open Fifth 

TV series: Pluribus created by Vince Gilligan

You know the tendency of the media to show you ALL the good bits from film and TV in the trailers? Pluribus is the opposite of that! I actually missed the release and first 2 episodes on release because the blurb did nothing for me “The most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness.”

It’s purposefully misleading, to save the real story to be opened as you watch.

I don’t want to spoil anything but this is a true sci-fi and makes you really think about the nature of humanity. And what would you truly give up for world peace?

Sam Goldsmith, Business Development Manager – Open Fifth

Book: The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst

On the 1st of November, Eilish and I popped to the Queer All Year pop-up market where we released and picked up books at the The Big Queer Book Swap. I came home with Alan Hollinghurst’s 2004 Man Booker Prize winner The Line of Beauty, which had been on my reading list since looking for recommendations similar to Forster’s Maurice (and not Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, see our June 2025 WOOSH Pride special). The book is set in Britain during the 1980s and follows the main character Nick as he lodges in the home of a wealthy friend’s family after completing his studies at Oxford. The book follows Nick’s gay relationships and encounters against a backdrop of Thatcher’s Britain, with themes of class divide and hypocrisy whilst the circling threat of HIV/AIDS draws in.

I love a beautifully written novel, and this is a beautifully written novel.

In October I read And the Band Played on: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic (Shilts, 1987) and The Great Believers (Makkai, 2016 – deserving of its own review!), which made for some interesting contextualisation and contrast with The Line of Beauty. On a completely separate note – did the film Saltburn have anything original and not lifted directly from The Line of Beauty, Brideshead Revisited, or The Talented Mr Ripley?

Lauren Purton, Marketing Executive – Open Fifth

Updates from Helen

Book: The Night of Women by Marlon James

For some reason I decided the best time to read this was when I was travelling a lot for work on early morning flights. I don’t know why I thought reading a brutal depiction of slavery in Jamaica was a good idea at 7am in the morning but I suspect it has become clear through my various WOOSHs that my thought process is a bit skewed at the best of times.

I love how Marlon James writes. It’s all in dialog so my technique is to sort of skim read it rather than focus on the individual words. That way I get the jist without having to worry about what each individual word means. His writing just flows like someone is telling you their story rather than reading an amazing book.

But oh the story is brutal. That shouldn’t be a surprise. 

I would get so angry at the plantation and slave owners. Then I would get so angry at the main character. Then I would tell myself she doesn’t know any better because that’s all she’s ever known and she’s only a kid and it’s trauma and Stockholm syndrome, then I’d be traumatised by something that happened, then I’d go through the cycle all over again.

All before 9am most of the time.

An amazing read but brutal.

Book: Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff

This is the third and final instalment of the series and it delivers.

I loved this series. I really enjoy Jay Kristoff’s books because he’s scarcastic, irreverent, funny, weird, graphic and brutal. 

All three books in this series are serious tomes but so easy and fun to read you don’t mind reading approximately 800 pages per book.

Synopsis: Vampires are taking over and when it becomes perpetual night, humans are basically doomed.

However, there is one last hope for humanity – The Holy Grail.

It’s written as a story being told from the last Silversaint, a sworn brother of the holy Silver Order dedicated to defending the realm from the creatures of the night, to a vampire that is part of the family that has imprisoned him.

There are twists and turns and even though I started to guess at how it would turn out, very close to the end, I was only guessing. I was delighted by each reveal and you can tell how much the author was enjoying writing it as you read it.

There are fantastic illustrations throughout too.

Film: A Merry Little Ex-Mas directed by Steve Carr

Tis the season, so I have to review at least one of the new Xmas films produced by Netflix this year.

I’ve been really complimentary in my two reads so it’s time to be my own version of brutal.

I give you, A Merry Little Ex-Mas, with Alicia Silverstone and Oliver Hudson.

It made me so angry.

My friends and I would like to write our own version of the classic Hallmark/Netflix Xmas film where, rather than the plucky heroine leaving her great life and job in the big city for the high school sweetheart/local small town hero, she realises small towns aren’t all they’re cracked up to be and heads to the city for her dream job/flat/life.

A Merry Little Ex-Mas could have been that film. It wasn’t.

Alicia Silverstone and Oliver Hudson are getting divorced because she had left the big city and a budding career as an environmentally responsible architect for him and moved to the small town he grew up in. They got married, had a couple of kids, he became a workaholic, leaving her to raise the kids. She became a handywoman, nagging everyone to be more environmentally responsible, and she got increasingly resentful.

He’s got himself a new girlfriend so she retaliates by bagging a hot younger man. He get’s jealous. It’s revealed she’s leaving. Everyone, and I mean everyone, makes her feel really bad about that because how would the town survive without her and her handywoman skills and how could she think about selling the family home to be so selfish as to go off and do the thing she’s always wanted to do.

He’s passive aggressive, selfish, immature and horrible to her throughout.

And yet, at the very last moment, she decides to stay and try again with him.

Melissa Joan Hart is her best friend who is very supportive and suspiciously disappears at the end of the film. 

Jameela Jamil is the new girlfriend, whose job is to help women set up their own businesses!!!!!!!! She says from the beginning that she doesn’t do complicated and as soon as it’s obvious he isn’t over his wife she ends it and leaves!!!

It’s like they planned to do my friend’s and my reverse Hallmark/Netflix film and chickened out at the last second because…no, not going to go into a feminist rant…… It made me so angry.

Helen Symington, Sales Executive – Open Fifth