AN AUDIENCE member has been left "disgusted and appalled" by a performance of a Harry Potter-themed event at the Arts Centre.

Victoria Flint and her boyfriend attended Spontaneous Potter on Saturday, May 13, to celebrate her 42nd birthday. 

Both had purchased new cloaks and wands for the event, but were unpleasantly surprised as soon as the performance began.

Victoria said: “The first thing that the main character said when opening the show was, "I have never watched a single Harry Potter film or read a single Harry Potter book".

The audience then reportedly gasped, to which he replied, ‘and you can suck my balls!’”

On The Spontaneous Players’ website, Spontaneous Potter is described as “an entirely improvised wizarding comedy play, based on an audience suggestion of a fanfiction title.”

In the official poster, members of the troupe can be seen wearing cloaks resembling those worn by the different houses represented at the fictional Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Harry Potter universe, along with a stone statue of a serpent resembling that seen in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and an indistinct castle on a hill in the background.

Victoria said: “It’s not really what I paid £20 each for a ticket for, not what I think many people around me really thought that they paid for. We decided to leave early, it wasn’t anything to do with Harry Potter.

"It was just a group of four people that were doing some improvised comedy, and it had no bearing on Harry Potter.”

Victoria wrote to Wiltshire Creative, requesting a refund on her ticket but had not received a reply at the time of writing.

Wiltshire Creative said that it is “not involved in the content performed at all,” making the objection to the content “a question for the producers of Spontaneous Potter rather than Wiltshire Creative.”

The Spontaneous Players are a comedy group from Edinburgh that won the Scottish Comedy Award for Best Variety in 2018.

They are also known for their production of Spontaneous Sherlock, which was used as the group’s name until expanding into other themes. They regularly perform for audiences with children.

Victoria said: “[The presenter] did say, ‘Ah, I’ve been wanting to say that,’ because they did a children’s version of it, and he said, ‘I wanted to say that in the kids’ performance, but obviously I couldn’t.’”

Victoria said up until that evening, her birthday had gone well.

She said: “I’m a bit disgusted and appalled by it really.”