“When you create shows for children, you don’t patronise them – you make beautiful theatre”: Phelim McDermott, Ami Okomura Jones and Victoria Chen on My Neighbour Totoro at Gillian Flynn Theatre

20^th March 2025

Christina Yang

20 March 2025

Few stories capture the magic of childhood quite like My Neighbour Totoro. Brought to the stage by the Royal Shakespeare Company in collaboration with composer Joe Hisaishi and director Phelim McDermott, this adaptation of Studio Ghibli’s beloved 1988 film became a theatrical sensation when it premiered at the Barbican three years ago. Now, the production is set to enchant even more theatregoers as it moves to the Gillian Lynne Theatre this spring. The move marks an exciting new chapter, giving the show room to flourish in a space renowned for its innovative staging and immersive design. As McDermott continues to bring fresh life to this timeless tale, its enduring appeal proves that Totoro’s world – filled with wonder, quiet magic and larger-than-life puppets – is for everyone.

As My Neighbour Totoro begins its latest run, McDermott, alongside Ami Okumura Jones, and Victoria Chen – who play sisters Satsuki and Mei – have shared with The Upcoming about their personal connections with the story and its Shakespearean elements and how their approach to theatre has shaped their work on the production.

Hello Phelim, it’s so lovely to speak with you today. To start things off, could you tell us what audiences can expect from My Neighbour Totoro?

PM: That’s an interesting question, because there are some people who would go, “What? You don’t know what My Neighbour Totoro is about?”, but of course, some people don’t. It’s a beautiful story about two sisters who end up moving to the countryside because their mom’s ill, and their dad ends up looking after them. And in that move, they discover this wild spirit in the forest. He’s like a nature spirit called Totoro, and he is just the embodiment of beautiful, wild nature. It’s a show that’s very, very funny and very joyous, but it’s also very touching and moving. What I like about it is it’s a show that families enjoy and children love Totoro. Some people, they go, “Oh, I grew up with Totoro, I saw it as a child.” And so they get to see him for real, in full; his extraordinary kind of presence. But it’s also a show that adults love as well, because it’s got depth. It’s a thing for me, when you create shows for children, you don’t patronise them – you make beautiful theatre, and both adults and children love My Neighbour Totoro.

What do you think makes a piece of theatre universal, or non-fringe, in the sense of being accessible to a wide audience, and how does My Neighbour Totoro achieve this?

PM: Well, that’s kind of a big question, really, because my company, Improbable Theatre – we’ve always set ourselves the challenge of how to take the kind of ways of working that one might call fringe theatre into larger spaces, so to take that sensibility and that human ensemble and puppetry and visual sense into larger-scale work without losing the initial kind of impulse has been a big challenge, because you do a big show like this, there’s a lot of demands, there’s a lot of time pressure and money involved about, there’s a lot of commercial concerns at stake. But what I love about the show is that I feel like we managed to keep hold of that sensibility – there’s a fringe theatre sensibility – taken it to a larger scale, and shown that you can do that.

When the show first came out, you mentioned that My Neighbour Totoro has a Shakespearean quality. Could you elaborate on that connection?

PM: Yes, we originally made this show three, nearly four years ago, in Stratford-upon-Avon, working with the Royal Shakespeare Company. And I’d always dreamed that I would work there doing Shakespeare, and I ended up doing My Neighbour Totoro. And I remember going and looking at William Shakespeare’s statue and speaking to him and saying, “Oh, I thought I would come here and do Shakespeare, and I’ve ended up doing My Neighbour Totoro.” And he told me that he was very pleased; that he loved it. It is Shakespearean – in a way, it’s like A Midsummer’s Night Dream. It’s the journey into the magical spirits of the forest, and it’s a beautiful, Japanese version of that mythic kind of story.

With the move from the Barbican to the Gillian Lynne Theatre, have there been any changes to the show, aside from the adjustments or downsizing for the smaller stage?

PM: You know, I would say we haven’t really downsized, except in the wings. I mean, the stage is more intimate – the stage at the Barbican is wide and there’s big wing space. So our challenge has been how to not lose the sense of scale that we have, and I don’t think we have, what has been the challenge is how to work the Tetris of how the set fits together, how that Catbus fits into the wings, and how Totoro – he’s pretty impressive in his scale here – fits into the wings. So that’s been a bit like Doctor Who and the TARDIS, we’ve managed to make this space even bigger on the inside.

Hello Ami and Victoria, it’s so lovely to speak with you today. Could you tell us a bit about your characters, Satsuki and Mei?

VC: Well, Mei is an adventurous four-year-old. She’s brave, she’s bright, she’s bold and she’s full of curiosity.

AOJ: She’s very naughty. For Granny as well, I think every single one of your exits is you running away or going somewhere.

VC: But she’s an adorable four-year-old.

AOJ: Satsuki is ten, so she’s the older sister. And in the story, their mother is ill and away from home, so their dad’s kind of struggling to look after him on his own, so she takes on the kind of burden of being the parent, and she wants so desperately to be this grown-up, to hold the family together, to look after everyone, but there’s still that capacity for childlike wonder left in her.

Both of you have diverse backgrounds in performance, ranging from improv to video game voice acting. How did your experiences shape the way you approached your roles?

VC: I mean, everything in my life has influenced the way I approach this role. I think there are different kinds of actors, right? Some of them draw from a certain training system or a certain philosophy. For me, I like to mix and match different things. I’m a middle child, so I’ve been both the older sister and the younger sister. I also trained in Japanese art forms, like Butoh dance and Noh theatre, or the actor Suzuki training method as well, and that was very helpful. But what matters, I think, is that we stay open and receive all the offers that come from our team members as well. It’s in Holland’s ensemble piece. And for us to be convincing as four-year-olds and ten-year-olds, it requires the entire company to treat us as such, and I think they do a very good job of that.

AOJ: Yeah, and I think it’s this rehearsal process, especially so with Phelim McDermott, our director. His company Improbable Theatre are the co-producers, and its background is very much in improvisation, so it’s been really enjoyable to embrace that aspect of performing. I trained as not just an actor, but also as a deviser and theatre maker scheme to bring that to the table, a sense of play. And it’s something that I think is often underrated for actors, even when I do video game work, so often you don’t get that dialogue till you’re there in the recording studio. So often you’re getting feedback, so being able to be quick on your feet and responsive, has been really, really valuable, and to just have fun and not be fearful of using your imagination as well. Something we’ve been talking about is the joy of making mistakes, of being wild and free and embracing mistakes and leaning into those mistakes.

Victoria, how do you feel about My Neighbour Totoro being your Royal Shakespeare Company debut?

VC: Oh, it’s amazing. People always ask me, “Why is the Royal Shakespeare Company doing My Neighbour Totoro?” And I’m like, if Shakespeare were alive today, that’s exactly what he would do. Shakespeare was a contemporary of his time. He was, in a way, the mainstream artist of his time – he was the one setting the trend, he was the one who celebrated new voices and new works. And to really keep in the spirit of what Shakespeare represents, it makes so much sense for the Royal Shakespeare Company to be working on a production like My Neighbour Totoro. And also it’s a brilliant story, regardless of who tells it. We’re just very lucky that at this point we get to be the ones telling it, and I can’t wait for audiences to see it.

Ami, you’ve been part of the original cast, and it’s been three years since the play debuted. How have your feelings about your role and the production evolved over time?

AOJ: That’s a good question. I think what’s really beautiful about this play, about the film, about the story, is that it’s not rigid. There’s a kind of softness and ambiguity and fluidity to it. And each time I come back to it, different moments, different aspects of it jump out to me more you know, whether it’s thinking about my relationship with my family and my sister, my relationship with my community, whether that’s thinking about what this play means to the East and Southeast Asian community. Each time I come back to it, different things kind of are lit up by it, but one thing that never fails to take my breath away is the scale of work and heart that goes into everything. I mean, I’m sitting here with you now looking at this incredible set and all the hard work that goes into it. And I think if you feel that, you know the show is about people coming together and the power of community and neighbourliness, and I think you feel that in almost a meta-theatrical sense, in the way the play has been constructed, and that’s something that’s particularly alive for me with this show this week.

Christina Yang
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My Neighbour Totoro is at Gillian Lynne Theatre from 8^th March until 2^nd November 2025. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.