Recently while going for a jog along the Charles River in Boston I came across some people playing “Quidditch.” This happened to me once before two summers ago; read this in order to get some background on the “sport,” and my opinion of it. In this particular case last week I was extremely unimpressed by the participants attempt to recreate the Harry Potter game involving balls and flying brooms. The players weren’t wearing any sort of uniforms, and the “brooms” they carried between their legs didn’t even resemble brooms, they were just sticks with nothing on the end. Why would anyone want to hold a stick between their legs while running around playing a game?
If you’re going to play (or perform?) Quidditch, it should go one of two ways: Either it’s theater, or it’s a sport. It’s not both. If it’s theater, that’s great, but I want to see real brooms, robes, and logos commemorating Gryffindore, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw (for the record I remembered 3 of the 4 houses off the top of my head, I had to look up Ravenclaw). If it’s a sport, that’s even better. But then make it a sport. Ditch the brooms and everything else altogether and just turn it into a crazy game of rugby/soccer/hockey/handball involving multiple balls and goals. Doing it halfway in between just makes the players/actors look like a bunch of chumps.
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About Mark Vandeusen