Go see My Neighbour Totoro at the Barbican on any given night and it’s likely you’ll hear audible gasps from the audience. Or in my case, full on weeping. With its captivating performances, jaw-dropping puppetry and spellbinding soundtrack – not to mention the set design – the whole thing is a profoundly magical experience.
The adaptation of the 1989 cult film is a collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company, the much-adored titans of Japanese animation, Studio Ghibli, who made the original, and the Barbican. A triple threat of cultural institutions, the show was never not going to be special, but having won six Olivier Awards, My Neighbour Totoro, has really made its mark on the landscape of British theatre.
The magic isn’t lost on one of its star performers, Ami Okumura Jones. The British-Japanese actor plays Satsuki, the eldest of two sisters who move to rural Japan with their father to spend time with their ill mother. Famously, not that much happens in terms of the plot, and yet the two young children encounter a menagerie of magical creatures from Susuwatari – travelling soot sprites – to Catbus, the aptly named part cat, part bus.
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‘I remember thinking if I don't get this, I may never emotionally recover’ says Okumura Jones in between a matinee and evening performance. ‘I'd seen the film countless times growing up, but I didn't know about the show until the casting call came through. I had no idea that anyone was mad enough to think about making a live stage adaptation. They'd been workshopping and developing it for years and years and years, it was all very hush hush.’
For Okumura Jones, the story has a special significance. ‘It was always a part of my childhood. My little sister and I used to joke that the two of us were just like Mei and Satski. It's so huge across Asia, I think anyone who is Japanese or even of east to Southeast Asian heritage grew up watching Studio Ghibli films.’
As Satsuki, Okumura Jones is wide-eyed and captivating. While her and her co-star Mei, who plays the younger sister, are in their thirties, they’re completely convincing playing child characters. In a moment of full-circle sisterhood, Okumura Jones' real little sister was the one to help her to prepare for the My Neighbour Totoro audition. They rehearsed together, and on Okumura Jones’s self tape, it’s her younger sister playing Mei.
Having landed the part, Okumura Jones describes the early rehearsal period (at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford upon Avon) as ‘the most emotional and magical eight weeks of my life.’ Cast to play a character who defined her childhood, the show offered her an opportunity to reconnect with her heritage.
‘It was a fully East and Southeast Asian cast’ she says. ‘So many people in the room were either first generation Japanese immigrants of Japanese heritage. It's sad how low my expectations were, I was so surprised.’
Okumura Jones was born in the UK and moved to Hong Kong when she was three years old. Attending an English-speaking school, she learned Japanese as a second language but quickly fell behind; ‘the only person I was speaking to was my mother. The way I've been brought up, culturally, was very Western.’ She moved back to the UK at 17, where she’s been ever since.
‘Suddenly I was going into work every day and hearing people chatting at breaks and swapping jokes in Japanese. It was the first time since I've been a kid that I've been in an environment where I'm hearing English and Japanese simultaneously’.
She describes the experiences as, ‘very emotional for loads of reasons. My Japanese is not particularly brilliant, so there were feelings of shame and guilt. We had loads of great discussions, and a lot of the first generation [immigrants] said they often feel embarrassed that their English isn’t good enough – loads of these things were unpacked. It's been a process that has given me renewed pride in my heritage.’
A recent study found that just 38% of theatre performers were from minority backgrounds, but of that 38%, East Asian actors represented just 3%. In the face of such dire statistics, Okumura Jones says the cast of My Neighbour Totoro, ‘felt the weight of the community. We tried to hold it with responsibility – but also lightly.’ With stellar reviews across the board, the cast and crew can take a collective breath.
With the show now entering its final weeks, Okumura Jones says she's not sure what's next ('the actors life, baby!'), but having starred in one of the years most defining shows, no doubt she'll be returning to the stage very soon.
My Neighbour Totoro is on at the Barbican until March 23.
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