Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’s Cara Ricketts Goes From Hedda and Hippolyta to Hermione

Cara Ricketts has performed countless juicy roles in some of the greatest works written in the English language: Portia in Julius Caesar, Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Celia in As You Like It, Perdita in The Winter’s Tale, Isabella in Measure for Measure, Lady Anne in Richard III, Imogen in Cymbeline, Hedda in Hedda Gabler. Now she’s playing another classic female character, albeit of a slightly more recent vintage: Hermione Granger, the bookish adventurer, and friend to Harry and Ron, in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

“I can't help but liken it to playing one of Shakespeare's classical heroines or even Hedda Gabler,” she told Tamsen Fadal on The Broadway Show (The character’s name, coincidentally, was drawn from The Winter’s Tale.) As Ricketts explained, she has traded notes with other actresses who have played Hermione on stage, asking how they come to the piece and what they choose to do with it. "It feels bigger than just a regular show in that way.”

You don’t need to be well versed in the original seven-book Harry Potter saga (or its eight-film counterpart) to connect with the story of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, said Ricketts. “It's so universal. It's about a father and his relationship with his son.” That’s just as well: Ricketts has only gotten up to the third book—her boyfriend is more of a dyed-in-the-wool Potterhead. "When he found out that I had booked the part, he immediately got me Hermione’s wand. And I was like, ‘This is great. I don’t know what it is.’”

So there’s been a lot of learning about the Wizarding World on the job, Ricketts said, along with the “almost familial” joy of playing to audiences who have a deep connection to the material. “To come to the theater together and really enjoy a story that people have loved for years feels like an incredible gift.”