My Neighbour Totoro (play)

My Neighbour Totoro is a stage adaptation of the 1988 Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro. It was adapted by Tom Morton-Smith with music by Joe Hisaishi. It premiered at the Barbican Centre in London in 2022.

Synopsis
In 1950s Japan, two girls, Satsuki and Mei, whose mother has been hospitalised with tuberculosis, relocate to a village in the countryside. Their new house, in which they live with their professor father, Tatsuo, is haunted with soot spirits, susuwatari, and they encounter Totoro, a "forest spirit who looks like the result of an experimental breeding programme involving a chinchilla, a barn owl and a bean-bag sofa". Mei is the first to discover him, and he comforts the girls with his presence.

Production
The original production is directed by Phelim McDermott, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company in collaboration with improbable and Nippon TV, with music composed by Hisaishi. The film's director and writer, Hayao Miyazaki, gave the production his blessing on the condition of Hisaishi's involvement.

The production makes extensive use of puppets to portray Totoro and his fellow creatures. The puppets were designed by New York-based puppeteer Basil Twist and built by the Jim Henson Company at their shops in Los Angeles before being shipped to London.

The production premiered at the Barbican on October 8, 2022, and ran until January 21, 2023 to critical acclaim. On March 20, 2023, it was announced it would return to the Barbican in the following season, running from November 21, 2023 to March 23, 2024.

Trivia

 * Mei Mac, who stars in the production as Mei, previously earned praise from both critics and Miyazaki for her portrayal of San in the 2012 stage adaptation of Princess Mononoke by Whole Hog Theatre, which was the first stage adaptation of a Studio Ghibli work.