Chihiro and co. are hitting the stage!
We’ve been yearning for a return to normality for a very, very long time now. After a year of Covid-19 having an effect on the entire world’s lives, we could definitely use a slice of escapism. [Featured Image: @ghibliuk, Instagram].
That isn’t even to mention the fact that a large number of exciting events keep being announced with the promise of happening “when everything goes back to normal” – whenever that may be!
Well, for now that’s the best we can do, so here’s another one of those… it’s a big one! Spirited Away is receiving the theatrical treatment, and is due to hit stages around the world in 2022.
Studio Ghibli’s 2001 classic is being brought to life by Les Misérables director John Caird. Sen aka Chihiro, her pig parents, No-Face and all the gang will first hit the stage at the world premiere in Tokyo in February in 2022, if all goes to plan. Then, the stage play will tour Japan and possibly hit other parts of Asia and Europe. Let’s keep all our fingers crossed for the announcement of a New Zealand date soon, shall we?
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Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, John Caird said: “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.”
He went on to add: “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,”
“I am looking forward with great pleasure to deepening my partnership with my dear friends at Toho through a new relationship with Studio Ghibli and Suzuki Toshio, their most generous and inventive lead producer.”
Caird has already casted Actresses Kanna Hashimoto and Mone Kamishiraish to play Chihiro in the tale that follows the 10-year-old’s quest to get her parents home safely from a world inhabited by ghosts and spirits. Studio Ghibli has given the play its full support.