By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 16 March 2024, runs through 23 March 2024 RUNTIME: 160 minutes (including a 20-minute interval) UPDATE: This production transfers to the Gillian Lynne Theatre 8 March through 2 November 2025 Tickets

The remaining week of performances for this Royal Shakespeare Company and Joe Hisaishi production of the 6 Olivier Award-winning stage version of the beloved 1988 Studio Ghibli film are sold out and we wouldn’t be surprised if it returns to London for another run soon.

• Read on for reasons including how this contains some of the finest puppetry we have ever seen

We’ve never seen the film and what we didn’t appreciate before we arrived for this Saturday matinee was quite how family friendly this show would be.

Father Tatsuo moves his daughters Satsuki and Mei from the city to the country to be closer to their mother who is ill and being treated in the hospital nearby.

Both Mei Mac, playing four-year-old Mei, and Ami Okumura Jones, as elder sister Satsuki, are extremely strong in conveying their child-like wonder as they explore their new home near a forest and discover it’s riddled with soot sprites, brought to life brilliantly by the many puppeteers on hand here to conjure up some of the finest puppetry we have ever seen.

This is the theatrical embodiment of magical realism which is beguiling for children but also capable of skewering the interest of adults willing to surrender with wide-eyed curiousity and imagination to the visual delights they are being offered.

The soot sprites eventually leave the family alone and Mei discovers her neighbour Totoro, a giant owl-type creature who lives hidden in the woods next door, and befriends them.

The children become enchanted by the spirits of the forest and there is a breathtaking moment as the acorns the sisters plant to give nature a hand sprout into glorious life.

Sorrow never feels especially far away and soon the sisters have to rely on the help of their woodland friends to rush to the hospital bedside of their ailing mother.

Totoro won 6 Oliviers last year – best entertainment, best director, best set design, best costume design, best lighting design and best sound design – and returned to the Barbican for a triumphant encore run which finishes on Saturday (23 March 2024).

We’re asked not to take pictures of Totoro and he’s so big and worked by so many puppeteers that he’s the real marvel here.

This show is a feast for the eyes for audience members of all ages.

• Main picture by Manuel Harlan via Facebook courtesy Barbican Centre
• Have you seen a Barbican show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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