With very creative and inspiring musicals and stage productions teased and released annually, it does take a certain something special to be worthy of next-level hype. For this first time in quite some time… that production has been announced. Toho Co. Ltd has this week confirmed that Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s 2001 animated feature film Spirited Away (Aka. Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) is in the process of being adapted into a stage production. This is being produced as part of a program celebrating the 90th Anniversary of Toho Co. Ltd in Japan.
For those who have somehow never heard of the film, it is arguably the best film from an already highly acclaimed Japanese animation studio, going so far as to win an Oscar for its international release. The film primarily follows Chihiro, a 10-year-old girl moving with her parents to their new home. A detour sees them taken into a mysterious world of spirits, ruled over by the sorceress Yubaba, who turns Chihiro’s parents into pigs. After a series of bizarre and dangerous challenges, including the loss of her identity, Chihiro must is required to use all her wits to survive in this strange place and return to the human world. It really is a story of resilience, quite fitting for the times we live in.
So… who will be behind this production? The film is being adapted to and directed on the stage by John Caird, the British stage director who has won Tony and Olivier awards, is an Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and has a number of productions under his belt including Les Misérables, Nicholas Nickleby and Daddy Long Legs.
The role of main character, Chihiro, will be double-cast by Kanna Hashimoto and Mone Kamishiraishi, both of whom have experience in both anime voice acting and some form of acting – whether directly on stage or through film and television.
Spirited Away will be first performed at Toho’s Imperial Theatre from February – March 2022, with additional legs of the tour in Osaka (April 2022), Fukuoka (May 2022), Sapporo (June 2022) and Nagoya (June-July 2022). Is an international tour due to commence afterwards? Well… nothing has been announced at this point in time, but here’s hoping that if international producers don’t make magic happen, that a recorded version will be officially released – as has been the case with several film/anime-to-stage adaptations in the past. I for one, am eagerly waiting more news on this!
I feel so excited and privileged to be working on the first ever stage adaptation of Sen to Chihiro. I have for many years now regarded Miyazaki Hayao as one of the pre-eminent geniuses of world cinema and the greatest ever proponent of the anime form.
I share a belief in all the most dominant themes of Miyazaki’s work, themes that are at the core of the Sen to Chihiro world – care for the environment, reverence for nature, a belief in the force of the good spirits within us and the empowerment of young women and men to change the world for the better.
The double casting in the part of Chihiro will give me the chance to work again with the brilliant and charming Kamishiraishi Mone, with whom I had such an exciting collaboration on Knights’ Tale, and now affords me the same opportunity with the greatly talented, vivacious and moving young actress Hashimoto Kanna.
I must have spent a thousand hours working on Sen to Chihiro and look forward to spending many thousands more.
John Caird – The Director of the Spirited Away Stage Adaptation
We, Hayao and I, both liked John’s vision. He is a person we can trust. I am looking forward to seeing Chihiro grow on stage under his direction. I could tell how much he adores this story from his delighted face when I gave him a No-Face (Kaonashi) piggy-bank.
Toshio Suzuki – Studio Ghibli
