Harry Potter creator JK Rowling hopes newest adventure goes global

A fan in Porto dresses up like the boy wizard on the day of the release of the published version of the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child stage play. [Photo/Agencies]

The script of the play is being published Sunday, with a global print run in the millions, so future audienc[Photo/Agencies]es will have more opportunities to know the plot in advance if they choose.

Without entering spoiler territory, it's safe to say that the play has much to make fans rejoice. This is both an eighth installment in the Potter saga worthy of Rowling's seven novels, and a stage spectacle to delight even the uninitiated.

The script－written by Thorne from a story by Rowling, Thorne and Tiffany－picks up 19 years after the end of the final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Harry－the orphaned boy whose destiny was to save the wizarding world－is now an overworked civil servant at the Ministry of Magic, feeling the approach of middle age. His younger son, Albus Severus, is a reluctant pupil at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, struggling with the burden of his family's fame.

Fans who know the saga inside out are likely to appreciate the teeming detail of the play, which runs for five hours over two parts. It captures Rowling's richly textured magical world, with its Byzantine mythology, complex history and array of fantastical creatures.

The plot is a rollicking adventure in which Albus' attempt to right a wrong goes awry. But it also has adult things to say about loss and grief, and about the complexities of friendship and family love.