RSC to bring Studio Ghibli's My Neighbour Totoro to the stage

Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbour Totoro is being adapted for the stage by the Royal Shakespeare Company and will be staged at London’s Barbican. The RSC is labelling it as its first production of scale to open at the London venue since Les Misérables in 1985.

It is a co-production with theatre company Improbable and Tokyo-based broadcaster Nippon TV, and follows five years of development with Hayao Miyazaki’s celebrated animation studio. The show will be executive-produced by the RSC and Joe Hisaishi, who composed My Neighbour Totoro’s original score.

Hisaishi’s music from the 1988 film will be a cornerstone of the stage production, which has been adapted by Oppenheimer playwright Tom Morton-Smith and will be directed by Improbable’s Phelim McDermott, in what will be his RSC debut.

The RSC’s acting artistic director Erica Whyman described the project as a "true collaboration" with the Japanese film studio that "honours the spirit of the film but is its own thing".

"The RSC has a strong tradition of centring children’s voices and imaginations. Children can teach us things and I think this film and theatre production are going to remind us of that," she told The Stage.

Whyman said the decision to open the show at the Barbican was, in part, due to its large stage that would facilitate the "spectacular" scale being planned for the production, and marked a commitment to the RSC’s longstanding partnership with the London venue. 

The show will feature puppetry by Basil Twist, and Hisaishi’s original score has been given new orchestrations by Will Stuart, which will be performed live.

Production design is by Tom Pye, costumes are by Kimie Nakano, lighting is by Jessica Hung Han Yun, sound is by Tony Gale and movement is by You-Ri Yamanaka.

My Neighbour Totoro opens at the Barbican on October 8, running until January 23, 2023, with press night on October 18.

Hisaishi described the production as a "groundbreaking project" between the UK and Japanese partners, and said Studio Ghibli saw an affinity between the RSC’s work and Miyazaki’s aesthetic.

He added: "If the story is universal – as I believe it is – it will have a global reach even if it is performed by people from different cultural backgrounds speaking different languages. I was sure of this – and so we have chosen to open outside Japan. To me this was important. It’s vital to keep distance with the film but it’s also important to have new encounters. That’s why I put my trust in this project."

Whyman said working with Studio Ghibli was "an enormous privilege" that spoke to the strength of the RSC’s work for families, including Matilda the Musical, which has played to more than nine million people on four continents.

Whyman said achieving similar global success for My Neighbour Totoro would be "wonderful", adding: "It would be really great to tell this story around the world because it is loved around the world. There are audiences, truly everywhere, for Studio Ghibli’s work, so it would be great.

"Making theatre in the late days of the pandemic, it’s never something you can bank on and there is always risk that it doesn’t do what we want it to do, but every indication is that this will be a really popular, accessible and magical show." 

The RSC has also announced the return of David Edgar’s adaptation of A Christmas Carol for this festive season.

It premiered at the RSC in 2017, and returns for a third run this Christmas, opening on October 26 and running until January 1. It will be directed by Rachel Kavanaugh.

Whyman described Edgar’s adaptation as "really fun, witty and joyful, and said the playwright is creating a "version that speaks to 2022".