Variety: Executive producer and composer Joe Hisaishi and the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) are readying a stage adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki’s beloved 1988 Studio Ghibli film “My Neighbor Totoro.” It will open at London’s the Barbican this fall in collaboration with Improbable and Nippon TV.
3 comments:
I know a lot of people love Studio Ghibli's work, and I have a strong impression of them though I have not actually seen any of them yet, but what felt really strange from this article's title was why it was being done by a Shakespeare group. From what I hear shakespeare is treated with a lot of reverence but alsos seriously as basically its own discipline with its own acting cues and operates very strongly as its own form of theatre, and outside of this company being globally recognized and prestigious, I’m sure there were others somewhere in existence of similar note, but from the name I thought it would be a very specialized place working on something totally out of their “comfort zone” which felt weird, but the theatre itself is just named for the playwright and they operate a lot more mundanely and does do a lot of work on other new or adapted works.
I think when major film production companies recycle the same story or do another adaptation of a film or book gets ridiculously old, but to have the same idea in a stage production sounds dope as hell. Especially a movie that is as heart warming and out there as My Neighbor Totoro or any of the Hiyao Miyazaki films. It's not just about how to adapt it from the play to the stage now, it should be how are they going to take all of these out of this world, mystical elements from the original movie and turn it into something that is practical in real life and still keep the message and universe in tact. A lot of people have strong connections to Totoro because he was just a big ol' animal that helped make us all feel happy and comfy and warm on the inside and it'll be hard to capture all of love from the movie.
This is so exciting! ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ seems to be the second Hayao and Studio Ghibli film to be adapted into stage performance after ‘Spirited Away’. Although Totoro isn’t my favourite Studio Ghibli movie of all times, I still think it’s a great movie with high popularity. So, choosing it to adapt is surely promising and I think a great choice. From reading the article, it seems that the design and production team seems pretty settled, and I can’t wait to see what they produce. As I’m writing this, I’m also picturing in my head all the different elements that I think could be challenging yet fun to see. Lastly, it touched my deeply when Hisashi said that “in Japan, many people are passionate about theatre and musicals, but there are no original Japanese shows or musicals performed in the world”. This is something that I’ve also felt growing up in Asia, where the theatre culture isn’t as strong. So I think starting original Japanese production with Studio Ghibli animations was a smart decision and I think its collaboration with RSC will be a successful one.
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