Famed Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi is teaming with Studio Ghibli and the U.K.’s Royal Shakespeare Company to create a stage version of Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki’s 1988 hand-drawn classic “My Neighbor Totoro”.
Set in 1950s Japan, the film follows two young sisters who leave Tokyo City and move with their father to their new countryside home near a forest to be closer to their mother who has been suffering a long-term illness. Left to their own devices, the girls discover spirits and magical creatures.
Hisaishi’s score from the film will be used in the stage production along with orchestral pieces and songs that were written for the movie but weren’t included in it. British playwright Tom Morton-Smith (“Oppenheimer”) has adapted the script while Phelim McDermott will direct.
The large ensemble cast is expected to be of Japanese, East and South-East Asian heritage, however one concession is the two young sibling heroines are unlikely to be played by children due to the physical demands of the roles including complicated puppetry.
Production will run at London’s Barbican Centre from October 8th through January 21st and will not be a musical.
Source: The Guardian
