My Neighbour Totoro – Barbican Theatre

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) latest collaboration with Joe Hisaishi (Composer), Tom Morton-Smith (Adaptor), and Phelim McDermott (Director) who is best known for his work on the Philip Glass operas Akhnaten and Satyagraha, certainly has all the ingredients for that perfect production! The team have adapted one of the world’s most famous animated movies by animator master, Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, to create something that is not only entirely fit for the stage, but in doing so have created an act of pure theatrical brilliance. Every minute of the production was magical and at times astonishingly beautiful.  

For those who are unfamiliar with the 1980’s movie, ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ is set in 1950’s Japan, and features two young sisters, Satsuki (Ami Okumura Jones) and Mei (Mei Mac). The girls move with their father, Tatsuo (Dai Tabuchi) to their new countryside home to be closer to their mother, Yaksuko (Haruka Abe) who is unwell and staying in a local hospital nearby.

The story centres around the whimsical play times of the girls, as they explore their new home, a new countryside environment, and one by one, their new neighbours. As all children do, they create a world of fantasy and make believe, and seek to find joy in exploring. Then, one day they meet their most fantastic and enchanting neighbour, Totoro!

The huge cast of actors British East Asian assembled by the RSC are a group of the most accomplished professionals you could hope for and take on the significant task of recreating Miyazaki’s lovable characters with style and grace. They offer a masterclass in combining theatrical styles from across the world, with many of the performers taking on named roles as well as “Kuroko” roles, the stagehands in traditional Japanese theatre, who dress all in black, and whom in this production also double up as expert puppeteers.

The relationships between all the performers are truly authentic, and no more so than between the two girls and their father. ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ is a fairy-tale, and like all that have come before, there is a sadness in the backstory of the tale’s main characters. The heartbreak here comes from a seeing young father struggling to look after his children, under the shadow of their mother’s wholly uncertain fate, whilst maintaining love and hope for the future. It was a real pleasure to watch Ami Okumura Jones, Mei Mac, and Dai Tabuchi at work.

The RSC has been very careful not to any release publicity photos of any puppets and limited shots of the set and for very good reason. Whilst not an exact movie replica, the design, and creative teams behind ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ have pulled out all the stops to create a genuinely magnificent recreation of Miyazaki’s world-famous animated movie, and on every level, they have captured the essence of his masterful storytelling.

There is no way to properly explain the magnitude of the colossal set designed by Tom Pye without major spoilers, but it has a house that splits apart, a forest that contains an entire orchestra and that suspends singer Ai Ninomiya high above the stage, and a rotating stage that transports the characters and the audience into a dreamworld that combines Shinto and Japanese folklore. Equally magnificent is Basil Twist’s breath-taking puppetry design, which offers everything you could want, from Totoro in EVERY size, through to hordes of scurrying ‘soot sprites and flocks of crazy, comical chickens.

Every now and then, a truly remarkable theatrical production hits the stage, one that is sure to amaze audiences across the generations and leave them utterly speechless to the genius that is live theatre, and ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ is certainly a contender for this prize. This is one not to be missed!!

‘My Neighbour Totoro’ runs at the Barbican Theatre, London until 21st January 2023, however pre-sale tickets were in high demand and the show is currently sold out, which shows the brilliance of what the RSC have created. Some tickets are occasionally being released and these can be purchased here if you are quick. https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2022/event/royal-shakespeare-company-my-neighbour-totoro  

Reviewer: Alan Stuart Malin

Reviewed: 2nd November 2022

North West End UK Rating: ★★★★★