It has been announced that a stage adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated movie Spirited Away will premiere in Japan next year, directed by original co-director of Les Misérables, John Caird. 

Spirited Away tells the story of Chihiro, a 10-year-old girl (a role that will be double cast with Kanna Hashimoto and Mone Kamishirashi) who must survive after getting lost in a mysterious world where her parents are turned into pigs and it’s up to her to find a way home. It will premiere at The Imperial Theatre in Tokyo before touring to Osaka, Fukuoka, Sapporo and Nagoya. 

John Caird said: “I have for many years now regarded Miyazaki Hayao as one of the pre-eminent geniuses of world cinema and the greatest 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.”

Let’s see if it works its way over to the UK, Besties.