Barbican, London
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production has astonishing puppetry, magical music and huge emotional impact
How to adapt an iconic film made by the creative giants at Studio Ghibli, directed by the genius Hayao Miyazaki and considered an unsurpassed feat of fantasy animation? And do so without getting egg on your face?
Just like this, it would seem. The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production, written by Tom Morton-Smith and with music by Joe Hisaishi (who composed the film score), is a thing of beauty in its own right which – as sacrilegious as it may sound – emulates Miyazaki’s original story of two sisters who move with their father to the countryside, in postwar Japan, and see other worlds emerging out of it.
