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Video: Trailer for Garden of Words London Stage Play
posted on by Andrew Osmond
London's Park Theatre in Finsbury Park is streaming the above trailer for its upcoming stage version of Makoto Shinkai's 2013 film The Garden of Words, which will run at the theatre from August 10 to September 9. The trailer features Hiroki Berrecloth, who plays the schoolboy Takao in the stage play, and Aki Nakagawa as Yukari Yukino, the mysterious woman who Takao meets in a rainy park.
The play is made by Whole Hog Theatre together with the Tokyo anime stage production company Nelke Planning. Tickets for the London production are available here. (A Tokyo edition of the play has also been announced, running from November 9.)
The London performances from August 10 to 12 will be previews, and the August 15 performance (7 p.m.) will be a press night.
The performances will be at 7.30 p.m. from Mondays to Saturdays, with additional matinees (3 p.m.) on Thursdays and Saturdays. There will also be a Parents and Babies performance on Thursday August 24 at 1 p.m.
The play is listed as being 1 hour 45 minutes long, and suitable for 12+ viewers. (The play is described as containing "Themes of mental health struggles, bullying and abuse of power.")
The play will be directed by Alexandra Rutter, who has adapted Shinkai's film together with Susan Momoko Hingley. The producer is Shuang Teng. The original music is by Mark Choi. The set and costume design is by Cindy Lin, and the puppets design is by Mikayla Teodoro. The lighting design is by Rajiv Pattani and the sound design is by Nicola T. Chang. The projection design by Kenichi Arakaki. The movement is credited to the Whole Hog Theatre company.
Apart from Hiroki Berrecloth as Takao Akizuki and Aki Nakagawa as Yukari Yukino, the play will also feature James Bradwell as Takao's brother Shota; Susan Momoko Hingley as Reimi Akizuki; Mark Takeshi Ota as Soichiro Ito, Shoko Ito as Shoko Aizawa; and Iniki Mariano as Riki Teramoto.
Standard ticket prices are £22.50 to £44.50. Preview ticket prices are £15 to £25. In addition, performances on Monday evenings and Thursday matinees will be available to Over-65s at £20 to £22.50. Tickets for viewers who need accessible seats are £17.50.
The play was originally announced in 2019 and was set to run in Summer 2020. However, it was indefinitely postponed by the outbreak of Covid-19.
In 2019, the play was described as "using puppetry, movement and projection art."
Rutter and Whole Hog Theatre were previously responsible for a stage adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, which ran in both London and Tokyo.
The play is described as follows:
"愛"よりも昔、"孤悲"のものがたり
"...you've been living your whole life alone..."
Takao and Yukari are escaping.
Whilst seeking solace in a Japanese garden, an out-of-step woman and an offbeat teenager meet by chance. Social misfits with a shared sense of loneliness, the unlikely pair bond over classical poetry, shoemaking and bad cooking. But the heartfelt companionship that could save them might also ruin them…
Based on the stereotype-defying Anime and novel from world-renowned filmmaker, Makoto Shinkai (your name., Suzume), Japanese animation continues to make waves on the UK stage with this global premiere.
A refreshingly candid Tokyo tale reminiscent of the adorable melancholy of Lost in Translation. Delve deeper into Shinkai's visually emotive story about the lines between platonic and romantic longing and what it is to feel alone in the biggest metropolis in the world. Seven lost souls, drowning in technology yet unable to connect.
From the UK's Whole Hog Theatre, creators of the world's first stage adaptation of a Hayao Miyazaki film with the kind permission of Studio Ghibli (Princess Mononoke), and Tokyo's Anime stage production specialists Nelke Planning (Attack on Titan, Naruto, Sailor Moon stage productions) comes a unique, new Anglo-Japanese collaboration.
