My Neighbour Totoro

Find your spirit with the return of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Executive Producer Joe Hisaishi’s “awe-inspiring” (Time Out) and “dazzling” (Guardian) production of Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbour Totoro, in collaboration with Improbable and Nippon TV. This five-star, Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation, written by Tom Moton-Smith (Oppenheimer) was the most anticipated theatrical event of 2022 and returns to London’s Barbican for a strictly limited 18-week season from 21 November 2023.

Winner of six Olivier Awards and five WhatsOnStage Awards, My Neighbour Totoro has been hailed as “utterly beguiling” (The Stage), “jaw-dropping” (Metro) and “theatre at its most magical” (LondonTheatre.co.uk).

“A tender and remarkably beautiful show” (Financial Times), this acclaimed staging of the celebrated 1988 animated feature film by Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) is an enchanting coming-of-age story exploring 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.

Directed by Phelim McDermott with production design by Tom Pye, costume design by Kimie Nakano, and lighting design by Jessica Hung Han Yun, this “delightful” (Times) and ground-breaking “triumph” (Telegraph) of a production features 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.

Book now for this unmissable, “huge, healing hug of a show” (The Stage). My Neighbour Totoro plays at the Barbican from 21 November 2023 to 23 March 2024 only.