Get out your time turner. Take a deeply magical breath. Give it the number of turns you’ll need to absorb the entire eight-movie adolescence of Harry Potter and his pals in a single weekend.
That’s what the Kiggins Theatre is offering on what’s become something of an international holiday, July 31. That’s Harry’s birthday, as detailed in J.K. Rowling’s ubiquitous saga. He was born in 1980. So, next week, The Boy Who Lived will be 35 years old.
We wonder how approaching middle age grabs him. Any carpal tunnel from all that wand-flicking? Have his two boys, James and Albus, followed his rule-bending example — and gotten expelled from Hogwarts by a less lenient, non-Dumbledore administration? And are brainy Hermione and gut-level Ron really making a go of that marriage of fiery opposites?
Answers to these and other aging Potterverse questions may never be known. But you’ll be able to review everything we do know — everything the movies-of-the-books taught us, that is — on Harry’s birthday weekend in downtown Vancouver. The only question is, do you have sufficient galleons in your Gringotts Wizarding Bank account?
The Kiggins is hosting a weekend-long Harry Potter Birthday Bash where it’ll screen all the Potter movies and host a Room of Requirement’s worth of special activities. (In case you haven’t visited the endless room: that’s a lot.) Like: a magical photo booth, popcorn predictions from Professor Trelawney, Dobby’s Dance Party and special guest appearances by many Hogwarts witches and wizards. (Beware: Death Eaters may be lurking in the shadows.)
The movies will screen in groups, beginning with the first two at 4:15 p.m. Friday; episodes 3, 4 and 5 start at 1 p.m. Saturday; and episodes 6, 7 and 8 start at 2 p.m. Sunday. All these screenings wind up at about 10 p.m.
Important to note: you can’t buy individual tickets to individual showings. (You can’t stop by Hogwarts just to dabble in a single Defense Against the Dark Arts class, can you? Ten points from your house for even thinking about it, Snape would growl.)
Your magical weekend-pass options are:
• Join Dumbledore’s Army for $40, enjoying all the films plus a collectible poster, a quaff of Butterbeer, popcorn and a magical treat.
• Slip into the exclusive Order of the Phoenix — a sort of magical Seal Team Six — for $65. That gets you all of the above plus prime reserved seating, a refill on your Butterbeer in a collectible pint glass and, perhaps best of all, a Mrs. Weasley bacon sandwich.
Learn more about these options at kigginstheatre.net. The Kiggins is at 1011 Main St. in downtown Vancouver.
Mrs. Weasley, incidentally, is Delena Meyer, a local business consultant and total Harry Potter nerd, she said. Meyer first came to Kiggins owner Dan Wyatt a few years ago with the idea for a Potter party at Pop Culture, his previous teen-oriented business on Main Street. That party was a huge success, and Meyer’s been looking forward to this one ever since.
“Everybody who read these books and saw these movies found something to respond to,” she said. “They really are magical.”
The magic extends over to the Flourish and Blotts Lending Library, where you can pursue the endless debate — books vs. movies, which are better? — while enjoying similar fun. The Vancouver Community Library is hosting a whole week of Harry, beginning July 26 with an art display. Throughout the week there’ll be wand- and potion-making, magical games, a costume contest and a 3 p.m. Friday parade from the library to the Kiggins in time for the first film.
There’s far too much to list here, so visit fvrl.org for the whole rundown. Just don’t miss the Quidditch demonstration on the library lawn at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Portland Quidditch League — yes, really — will show us how magical rugby is played by Muggles. One assumes that means grown-ups galloping around on broomsticks.
As the wise Dumbledore once declared: “Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!”
