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My Neighbor Totoro
Oct. 21st, 2022 12:03 pmWe went to see the Totoro stage show at the Barbican last night (for the first of two planned visits).
To begin with, it was a bit slow and I already had some concerns about whether or not it was going to live up to my expectations. But the opening of the film is a bit slow too - and the whole show was very, very faithful to the film.
The sets were amazing - the house and other various buildings moved around and opened up very cleverly. The people in black, wearing net masks, did a fantastic job at shifting everything around, manipulating all the puppets, representing plants and other objects. They trod a very fine line - staying largely unobtrusive, but reacting to the story and engaging with the audience at various moments in a way that was very effective.
The soot sprites and the little blue and white Totoro spirits were handled really well, imbued with a great deal of emotion and character. And I found this iterations of the Catbus less disturbing than most!
The human actors were clearly enjoying themselves and did an really great job at conveying their characters.
The musicians and singer added tremendous amounts of atmosphere and everything was portrayed and put together and represented beautifully.
And then there was Totoro himself. I have no words. And I won't go into a lot of detail, as anyone wanting to go and see it should go in with no idea what they're about to see.
The show made me cry multiple times
But all my expectations were exceeded. And I'm very much looking forward to seeing it again in December!
To begin with, it was a bit slow and I already had some concerns about whether or not it was going to live up to my expectations. But the opening of the film is a bit slow too - and the whole show was very, very faithful to the film.
The sets were amazing - the house and other various buildings moved around and opened up very cleverly. The people in black, wearing net masks, did a fantastic job at shifting everything around, manipulating all the puppets, representing plants and other objects. They trod a very fine line - staying largely unobtrusive, but reacting to the story and engaging with the audience at various moments in a way that was very effective.
The soot sprites and the little blue and white Totoro spirits were handled really well, imbued with a great deal of emotion and character. And I found this iterations of the Catbus less disturbing than most!
The human actors were clearly enjoying themselves and did an really great job at conveying their characters.
The musicians and singer added tremendous amounts of atmosphere and everything was portrayed and put together and represented beautifully.
And then there was Totoro himself. I have no words. And I won't go into a lot of detail, as anyone wanting to go and see it should go in with no idea what they're about to see.
The show made me cry multiple times
But all my expectations were exceeded. And I'm very much looking forward to seeing it again in December!
