It’s one of the most magical productions on the West End, a spell-binding show that enchants and is, at times, almost a spiritual experience, all of which makes the RSC and Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbour Totoro an exciting piece of Must See Theatre for all the family.
Be transported to 1950s, Tokyo’s countryside, and a fantastical world of forest spirits in this coming-of-age tale, based on the 1988 Studio Ghibli animated film. It tells the story of two young sisters, Satsuki and Mei, who relocate to the countryside with their father following their mother’s hospitalisation. During their summer adventures, they encounter numerous woodland spirits, including the furry giant Totoro.
It’s clear from speaking to the stars of the show, Amy Okumura Jones, who plays older sister Satsuki, and Victoria Chen, who plays Mei, the younger of the siblings, that both are thrilled to be reconnecting with their inner child for the production.
Jones looks at Chen and asks, “How old are you?” “Four,” Chen instantly responds, a big grin on her face, before Jones continues, “It’s never specified how old Satsuki is in either film or stage version, but I reckon she’s about 10 years old.”
The actors are, of course, a good bit older than the roles they’ve been charged with playing but both admit capturing their characters has been surprisingly easy.
Chen laughs, “Embarrassingly easy in my case, I’ve always had a strangely good memory of my childhood. In fact, my earliest is of my first birthday ever; my mum was carrying this Minnie Mouse cake. I wanted to eat the cake but mum said, ‘Not yet,’ and, being independent, even then, ‘I cried’.”
Jones, however, admits that challenge was a bit scary, explaining, “When you have adults playing children there’s always a risk it becomes grating. You need the audience to be able to capture their own childhood spirit as they watch, so we were given a lot of leeway to improvise, to play around and to find our own way of doing it. Once you do tap into your inner child, it sort of takes over, that’s quite freeing.”
Chen reflects, “The reason it works so well is because we have a world of other characters on stage who all treat us as children; a king can only be seen as a king if everyone else accords them the respect, right? So if we were just adults in a costume, it’d be okay, maybe, but because everyone else really believes we’re children, that team effort allows us to embody the characters and make them believable.”
Jones adds, “Some audiences who come to the show knowing nothing about it are a bit thrown in the first five minutes by two adults playing children, but Vic has a line very early on when she announces, ‘I’m four years old’. Normally it gets a laugh but within five minutes everyone just accepts it. It’s part of the contract of suspension of disbelief between the audience and the actors… and just the first of many such moments on this journey.”
My Neighbour Totoro has attracted a massive cult following due to the Studio Ghibli animation and both Jones and Chen were familiar with it before winning their respective roles.
“Yeah, we grew up with it,” says Chen. Jones elaborates, “My mum’s Japanese, so Studio Ghibli films were definitely part of my childhood. That animation studio is very popular in Asia, so most young Asians who were born after it was released are familiar with it. Then from the 2000s, people kind of became slightly more aware of it after another Studio Ghibli film, Spirited Away, won the Oscar. Now it’s more of a kind of cult following, especially among some trendy millennials, but more and more people are learning about Studio Ghibli, some of them through this show being on the West End, which is fantastic.”
Knowing Totoro from their own childhood and being aware of its dedicated fanbase, both actors agree the opportunity to play Satsuki and Mei is very special to them; Chen says, “It’s intense”, Jones, that, “It’s a massive privilege and honour because you’re representing so many people’s childhood.”
She continues, “But there’s a lot of responsibility there too. I had visions of enraged Studio Ghibli and Totoro fans with pitchforks, clamouring for our blood if we messed it up. You’re working with such a beloved cultural treasure, the stakes are so much higher. So it was exciting and terrifying at the same time when I got a call from my agent saying that the RSC wanted to make an adaptation of My Neighbour Totoro – I didn’t believe anyone had the gall to do that. When they said they wanted to see me for Satsuki, I just thought, if I don’t get this I might as well quit the profession. It’s a once in a lifetime role.”
Jones remembers only too clearly the moment that dream became a reality. “I just got out of bed. At the time I was sharing a flat with my real life little sister and about to go on holiday to Spain. My agent called and said, “You’ve got it’. To be honest, I think I was in shock for about a half an hour. I couldn’t quite believe it. Then I ran into the living room, still in my pyjamas and told my sister, ‘This is it!’… Then, of course, the fear started, getting the part is the easy bit, now you have to make it real.”
Chen too had to audition for the role of Mei, she recalls, “For me there were two rounds of auditions and in each I was paired with an older sister as I was only going up for Mei – I’m too short to play Satsuki. So, they paired me with these older sisters who. were whittled down to a short list and a final audition when they round-robined us again.”
That said, those round-robins did not bring Jones and Chen together.
Jones reveals, “We actually met on the first day of rehearsal.” Chen chips in, “… and I already knew about her because I’d seen her on stage in the show. I was so excited to discover I’d be working with her.”
Jones, who actually originated the role of Satsuki, says, “I was the original Satsuki and Vic was a brand new Mei, which was sort of sweet because I do feel like the older sister – I’ve been around the block and know how things work in the rehearsal room, while Vic was the wide-eyed ingénue.”
Chen agrees, “I went in with 100% complete trust in Amy. I was like, Amy’s going to carry me, she still does to this day and quite literally in the show. I knew I was so safe with her in the rehearsal room and that our pairing was going to be a smasher. I might even have hugged her a bit too long on day one.”
Off-stage, there is actually a sisterly sense to the two in the way they talk and interact with each other.
“We spent a lot of time together,” says Jones, “Gradually we found out more about each other, about how each of us worked, about how we could play together… Before you knew it, months had passed and we’re in the same dressing room six days a week and it’s like there was never a time that we didn’t know each other. There’s something really magical about that.”
So what is it about My Neighbour Totoro that makes it so magical?
“It reminds you of really simple things in life,” says Chen. “Not just nature, not just family, but love and curiosity and courage and all the things that, as humans, we have from the moment we’re born all the way to when we’re 104. We have all these forces within us that make being human part of a community that is so special and so worthwhile. Sometimes we forget that as grown-ups, and forget to remind our children of that. This show brings you back to the moments you remember when you were capable of all of that, and that you are still capable of that now.”
For Jones, it the “kaleidoscopic, mirror-like quality,” of the show that attracts audiences. She says, “Those who watched the film at the age of seven just want to see him for real on a stage in London. If you’re a kid on the brink of adulthood and you’re not quite sure what that means, there’s something in the show for you. If you’re a parent watching your kid grow up a little bit faster than you would like, there’s something there for you. If you’ve had illness or grief or loss in your life, if you’ve ever yearned to return to nature… There is just something there for everyone.
Running now at Gillian Lynne Theatre, London, Tickets HERE
