Find your spirit with My Neighbour Totoro, as this five-star, Olivier Award-winning production returns to London’s Barbican for a strictly limited 18-week season.
Winner of six Olivier Awards and five WhatsOnStage Awards, this staging of the celebrated 1988 animated feature film is brought to you by The Royal Shakespeare Company and Executive Producer Joe Hisaishi, in collaboration with Improbable and Nippon TV, and adapted by Tom Morton-Smith (Oppenheimer).
This acclaimed staging of the celebrated 1988 animated feature film by Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) is an enchanting coming-of-age story exploring the magical fantasy world of childhood and the transformative power of imagination, as it follows one extraordinary summer in the lives of sisters Satsuki and Mei.
In order to be closer to their mother while she recovers from an illness in a rural convalescent hospital, their father moves the family to the countryside. As the girls explore their beautiful new surroundings, Mei encounters magical creatures and the ancient protector of the forest she calls Totoro.
Although Satsuki doesn’t believe her little sister at first, they are soon both swept up in exciting adventures with their new neighbours – transported to a long-forgotten realm of spirits, sprites, and natural wonder.
Directed by Phelim McDermott with production design by Tom Pye, costume design by Kimie Nakano, and lighting design by Jessica Hung Han Yun, the production features puppetry created by Basil Twist and music from Joe Hisaishi’s iconic score in a new orchestration by Will Stuart, performed live with sound design by Tony Gayle.