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My Neighbor Totoro London Stage Play Ends its Run

The Royal Shakespeare Company's stage adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro, which has been running at London's Barbican Centre since October 2022, had its final performance on Saturday January 20. The play's Twitter feed posted the picture on the right, showing the play's main cast, with the message, "Today marks our last performances at Barbican Centre. A huge thank you to everyone who came to see us over the last 15 weeks."

Tom Morton-Smith, who scripted the stage version, posted his own message on Twitter, saying, "The laughter of children (both young and old) in the audience, the gasps with every reveal, the tears shed by and for anyone who has ever tried to comprehend loss - I simply could not have hoped for a more moving response... If there are gods of comfort and hope, they were conjured in that rehearsal room in Stratford-upon-Avon and again every performance on stage at the Barbican. If there are such gods, then I think they probably look a lot like my neighbour, Totoro."

The play was presented by the RSC and Hayao Miyazaki's longtime composer Joe Hisaishi, who created the music for the original film and served as the play's executive producer. It had a 15-week run at the Barbican Centre, beginning on October 8, 2022. Phelim McDermott (Akhnaten) directed the production. The play featured puppets by Basil Twist, which were built at Jim Henson's Creature Shop in Los Angeles. It was made in collaboration with the English theatre company Improbable and Japan's Nippon TV.