ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY RELEASE FIRST LOOK REHEARSAL IMAGES FOR MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO
DOWNLOAD IMAGES HERE
Today (Friday 30 September), Executive Producer Joe Hisaishi and the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) release rehearsal images for the global stage premiere of Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbour Totoro, which will begin previews at the Barbican next week.
The company comprises; Haruka Abe (Yasuko/ Puppeteer), Li-Leng Au (Puppeteer), Boaz Chad (Puppeteer), Nino Furuhata (Kanta/ Puppeteer), Andrew Futaishi (Puppeteer), Zachary Hing (Puppeteer), Susan Momoko Hingley (Miss Hara/ Puppeteer), Yojiro Ichikawa (Puppeteer), Arina Ii (Puppeteer), Haruka Kuroda (Nurse Emiko/ Puppeteer), Marian Lee (Puppeteer), Matthew Leonhart (Puppeteer), Mei Mac (Mei), Aki Nakagawa (Puppeteer), Kanako Nakano (Tsukiko/ Puppeteer), Ami Okumura Jones (Satsuki), Michael Phong Le (Hiroshi/ Puppeteer), Tobi Poster-Su (Puppeteer), Si Rawlinson (Puppeteer), Dai Tabuchi (Tatsuo/ Puppeteer), Jacqueline Tate (Granny/ Puppeteer) and Shaofan Wilson (Puppeteer).
Performed on the Barbican’s iconic stage, My Neighbour Totoro will play a 15-week season from Saturday 8 October 2022 to Saturday 21 January 2023 with press night on Tuesday 18 October 2022.
The celebrated 1988 animated feature film by Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) will be brought to the stage by its original composer Joe Hisaishi in a landmark new adaptation by the RSC (Matilda The Musical) written by playwright Tom Morton-Smith (Oppenheimer) in collaboration with Improbable and Nippon TV.
Directed by Phelim McDermott with production design by Tom Pye, costumes by Kimie Nakano, lighting by Jessica Hung Han Yun, and movement by You-Ri Yamanaka, the production will feature 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 and Video by Finn Ross. 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.
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.
The production is supported by Spanish Luxury House LOEWE, the Headline Sponsor of My Neighbour Totoro, whose connection with Studio Ghibli began in 2021 with the creation of a capsule collection inspired by the original animated film.
Ends
For further information contact: Bethany Arnold (bethany.arnold@rsc.org.uk), Kate Evans (kate.evans@rsc.org.uk) or Jane Ellis (jane.ellis@rsc.org.uk)
IMAGES AND VIDEO
DOWNLOAD ARTWORK AND ANNOUNCEMENT VIDEO HERE
DOWNLOAD CONCEPT TRAILER 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
#Totoroshow
#FindYourSpirit
Tickets from £20 - £85 with a limited number of Premium Seats available from £85
Day seats available at £25 for every performance (except Press Night) from 10am either online or in person at the Barbican.
The RSC is supported using public funding from 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
LOEWE is the Headline Sponsor for My Neighbour Totoro
My Neighbour Totoro is generously supported by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
The work of the RSC Literary Department is generously supported by The Drue and H.J. Heinz II Charitable Trust
The RSC Acting Companies are generously supported by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation and The Kovner Foundation
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
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a theatre and learning charity that 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 and out learning and education work 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 Creative 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 have one of the UK’s largest arts learning programmes, working with over 1,000 schools each year to broaden access to high quality arts learning and transform experiences of Shakespeare in schools. Through our national partnership programme with schools and regional theatres we target areas of structural disadvantage, including 26 areas of multiple deprivation across the country, from Cornwall to Middlesbrough. Research shows that our approaches to teaching Shakespeare support the development of reading and writing skills, accelerate language acquisition and development, raise aspirations and improve student attitudes to school and learning in general. They also foster well-being, self-esteem, empathy, resilience and tolerance and promote critical-thinking, creative, analytical, communication and problem-solving skills.
We are committed to being a teaching and learning theatre and we are the only arts organisation to have been awarded Independent Research Organisation status. 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 since 2020, 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
LOEWE
Created in Spain in 1846, LOEWE has been one of the world’s major luxury houses for almost 180 years. Since 2013, under creative director Jonathan Anderson, the brand has started a new chapter focused on craft and culture; evidenced through an intellectual yet playful approach to fashion, bold and vibrant Spanish lifestyle, and unmatched expertise with leather.
In 2021 the brand collaborated with Studio Ghibli to create the LOEWE x My Neighbour Totoro capsule collection, followed by LOEWE x Spirited Away in 2022. LOEWE and Studio Ghibli share a mutual love of craft and artisanal techniques, expressed in their respective languages, as well as a deep connection to nature, the outdoor world and a sense of perpetual invention.
