MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO RETURNS TO THE BARBICAN THIS AUTUMN
DOWNLOAD NEW PRODUCTION IMAGES OF MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO
DOWNLOAD NEW TRAILER FOR MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO
Today (Thursday 30 March), Executive Producer Joe Hisaishi and the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), in collaboration with Improbable and Nippon TV, announce that the record-breaking production of Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbour Totoro will return to the Barbican Theatre for a strictly limited run in Autumn 2023.
The global stage premiere of Hayao Miyazaki’s celebrated 1988 animated feature film, adapted by Tom Morton-Smith (Oppenheimer), was first announced in April 2022 and broke the Barbican’s Box Office record for most tickets sold in a single day. The production opened at the Barbican in October last year, where it received both critical and audience acclaim, winning five What’s on Stage Awards, and being nominated for nine Olivier Awards, the most nominations for any production this year. My Neighbour Totoro will return to the Barbican from Tuesday 21 November to Saturday 23 March 2024, with priority booking opening on Tuesday 11 April and public booking open on Friday 21 April 2023.
Griselda Yorke, RSC Executive Producer, said:
‘The most extraordinary group of artists have come together from all over the world to adapt this iconic film for the stage, and I am delighted that the production will return to the Barbican in 2023.
My Neighbour Totoro is a story of imagination and courage which asks us to trust the youngest amongst us to see further than most of us dare to dream. With our return to the Barbican, many more audiences will be able to experience the joy of Totoro and we can’t wait to welcome them.’
Directed by Improbable’s Phelim McDermott with production design by Tom Pye, costume design by Kimie Nakano, lighting design by Jessica Hung Han Yun, and movement by You-Ri Yamanaka. Puppetry design and direction is by Basil Twist, created with puppetry associate Mervyn Millar’s Significant Object and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. The production features music from Joe Hisaishi’s iconic score in a new orchestration by Will Stuart, performed live with sound design by Tony Gayle. Video design is by Finn Ross and Andrea Scott. Associate Director is Ailin Conant.
Artwork for the stage adaptation of My Neighbour Totoro includes a hand drawn title by Toshio Suzuki, Producer for Studio Ghibli, who was involved in the planning and production of the original animated film.
Casting for the 2023/24 run of My Neighbour Totoro will be announced soon.
This enchanting coming-of-age story explores 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.
Ends
For further information contact: Bethany Arnold, Senior Publicist (bethany.arnold@rsc.org.uk / 07827 824327)
IMAGES AND VIDEO
DOWNLOAD NEW TRAILER AND ARTWORK HERE
DOWNLOAD FULL SELECTION OF PRODUCTION IMAGES HERE
LISTINGS INFORMATION
MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO
Barbican, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS
Barbican Box Office: 020 7638 8891 or visit totoroshow.com
Twitter / TikTok: @totoro_show
Instagram / Facebook: @totoroshow / TotoroShow
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TotoroShow
#Totoroshow
#FindYourSpirit
Tickets from £29.50 to £92.50 with a limited number of Premium Seats available from £99.50
Day seats available at £25 from 10am each day
There will be over 30,000 tickets available under £35, including TikTok £10 Tickets, as well as discounts for families.
ON SALE SCHEDULE
RSC Artists Circle and Gold Patrons Tuesday 11 April
RSC Silver Patrons Wednesday 12 April
RSC Bronze and Barbican Patrons Thursday 13 April
RSC Members and Barbican Members + Friday 14 April
RSC Subscribers and Barbican Members Monday 17 April
Public Booking Friday 21 April 2023
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE AT THE BARBICAN
Saturday 21 November 2023 – Saturday 23 March 2024
Monday-Saturday, 7pm
Thursday & Saturday matinees, 2pm
Additional matinee performances: Sunday 31 December, 1pm and Tuesday 2 January, 2pm.
RSC ASSISTED PERFORMANCES AT THE BARBICAN
Audio Described performances:
Saturday 16 December, 2pm (Touch Tour 12.00 – 12.30pm)
Wednesday 28 February, 7pm (Touch Tour 5.00 – 5.30pm)
Captioned performances:
Saturday 16 December, 2pm
Saturday 6 January, 2pm
Thursday 25 January, 2pm
Wednesday 28 February, 7pm
Performance with Integrated BSL Interpreter
Friday 9 February, 7pm
Relaxed Performance with Integrated BSL Interpreter (Audio Described & Captioned)
Thursday 1 February, 2pm
Relaxed Performance (Audio Described & Captioned)
Saturday 17 February, 2pm
NOTES TO EDITORS:
The RSC is supported using public funding by Arts Council England
The work of the RSC is supported by the Culture Recovery Fund
The RSC is generously supported by RSC America
Miranda Curtis CMG – Lead Production Supporter of My Neighbour Totoro
Miranda Curtis CMG – Lead Production supporter of the original production of My Neighbour Totoro
New work at the RSC is generously supported by The Drue and H.J. Heinz II Charitable Trust
TikTok £10 Tickets for 14-25s sponsored by TikTok
Studio Ghibli
Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985 by animated film directors Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki and has produced 24 feature-length films.
The Studio’s SPIRITED AWAY (2001), HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE (2004) and PRINCESS MONONOKE (1997) are among Japan’s top 10 grossing films. Studio Ghibli films have garnered numerous awards and critical acclaim from film critics and animation specialists around the world. SPIRITED AWAY was awarded the Golden Bear as the Best Feature Film at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival and won the 2002 Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature Film. In October 2001, Studio Ghibli, in conjunction with The Tokuma Memorial Cultural Foundation for Animation, founded the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, designed by Hayao Miyazaki.
THE WIND RISES (2013), THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA (2013), WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE (2014) and THE RED TURTLE (2016) have earned the studio four consecutive nominations for the Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature Film. The studio’s latest film, EARWIG AND THE WITCH, was an official selection for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival.
Improbable
Improbable are pioneering improvisers, inventive creators, imaginative collaborators, authentic conversation facilitators.
Improbable is led by Artistic Directors Phelim McDermott and Lee Simpson and occupies a vital space in the landscape of UK theatre. At the heart of their artistic practice is improvisation. Whether in performance, rehearsal or development Improbable use the practice and philosophy of improvisation in the process of creation.
Improbable have staged epic spectacles like Sticky, which was seen by over 250,000 people, theatrical classics like The Tempest at Northern Stage and the Oxford Playhouse, intimate puppetry like Animo in studios across the country, adaptations like Theatre of Blood at the National Theatre, operatic triumphs like Satyagraha and Olivier and Grammy Award winning Akhnaten at the English National Opera, London and the Metropolitan Opera, New York, female led impro project Permission Improbable which nurtures an improvisation culture grown by women and fully improvised productions like Lifegame which toured internationally and at the National Theatre. Our shows are live events encouraging conversation between us and our audience.
Nippon TV
Nippon Television Holdings, Inc. is a media and content company whose core operation is broadcasting. At the nucleus of its businesses is subsidiary Nippon Television Network Corporation, Japan’s first commercial television broadcaster that hit the airwaves in 1953. Celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, the country’s leading linear platform enjoys widespread support from viewers, propelling it to win the annual Triple Crown Title for the 11th consecutive year in 2021 by ranking No 1 in individual viewer ratings across all three timeslot categories.
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
The Royal Shakespeare Company creates world class theatre, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared around the world, performing plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as well as commissioning an exceptionally wide range of original work from contemporary writers. Our purpose is to ensure that Shakespeare is for everyone, and we do that by unlocking the power of his plays and of live performance, throughout the UK and across the world.
We believe everybody’s life is enriched by culture and creativity. We have trained generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future. Our transformative Learning Programmes reach over half a million young people and adults each year, and through our Placemaking and Public Programme we create projects with and for communities who have not historically engaged with our work. We are a leader in creative immersive technologies and digital development.
We have a proud record of innovation, diversity and excellence on stage and are determined to grasp the opportunity to become an even more inclusive, progressive, relevant and ambitious organisation.
We are committed to being a teaching and learning theatre – in which we create world class theatre for, with and by audiences and theatre makers of all ages. We provide training for emerging and established theatre makers and arts professionals, for teachers and for young people. We share learning formally and informally. We embed training and research across our company, work and processes.
We recognise the climate emergency and work hard to embed environmental sustainability into our operations, creative work and business practice, making a commitment to continually reduce our carbon footprint.
Keep Your RSC supports our mission to create theatre at its best, unlocking Shakespeare and transforming lives. Thousands of generous audience members, trusts and foundations and partners supported Keep Your RSC in 2020 and, alongside a £19.4 million loan from the Culture Recovery Fund, we are thrilled to be welcoming audiences back. It will take time to recover, to reopen all our theatres, and many years to repay the loan and the support and generosity of our audiences is more important than ever. Please donate at rsc.org.uk/donate
Arts Council England
Arts Council England is the national development body for arts and culture across England, working to enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to visual art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2018 and 2022, we will invest £1.45 billion of public money from government and an estimated £860 million from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. www.artscouncil.org.uk
TikTok
TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. Our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok has global offices including Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Singapore, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.
About the Barbican
A world-class arts and learning organisation, the Barbican pushes the boundaries of all major art forms including dance, film, music, theatre and visual arts. Its creative learning programme further underpins everything it does. Over a million people attend events annually, hundreds of artists and performers are featured, and more than 700 staff work onsite. The architecturally renowned centre opened in 1982 and comprises the Barbican Hall, the Barbican Theatre, The Pit, Cinemas 1, 2 and 3, Barbican Art Gallery, a second gallery The Curve, public spaces, a library, the Lakeside Terrace, a glasshouse conservatory, conference facilities and three restaurants. The City of London Corporation is the founder and principal funder of the Barbican Centre.
