My Neighbour Totoro

In 2022 an RSC version of My Neighbour Totoro returned to the London stage. Chris Harding and guests explore the impact of its inspiration, the world and ideas conjured in the 1988 Studio Ghibili film, Tonari no Totoro - My Neighbour Totoro.

A world of sprites and spirits encountered by childhood sisters in the 1988 animated feature film by Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) and Studio Ghibli has become a hit stage adaptation for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The original composer Joe Hisaishi worked with playwright Tom Morton-Smith and Director Phelim McDermott and the production returns to the Barbican this autumn. Chris Harding and guests look at how this story of Totoro relates to Japanese beliefs about ghosts and nature, and how Miyazaki used ideas of childhood innocence to critique post-War Japanese society.

Chris Harding is joined by the playwright Tom Morton-Smith, Michael Leader from the podcast Ghiblioteque, Dr Shiro Yoshioka, Lecturer in Japanese Studies at the University of Newcastle, and Dr Xine Yao, co-director of UCL at University College London, and a Radio 3/AHRC New Generation Thinker.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in October 2022.