Leader Weekends: Theatre Review (My Neighbour Totoro & Superhigh Resolution)

Is the Royal Shakespeare Company’s My Neighbour Totoro, adapted by Studio Ghibli, worth a stage at the Barbican? Production design wizardry shifts two dimensional puppetry to 3D in nods to the Hayao Miyazaki’s joyous 1988 Japanese fantasy animation. Plus, the on-stage 12-legged cat bus, floppy chickens and “soot sprites”...Also up for discussion is Superhigh Resolution at the Soho Theatre, a hard-hitting and timely tale about the state of the NHS.The Evening Standard’s chief theatre critic Nick Curtis joins culture editor, Nancy Durrant, to review two more shows from London’s stages.Part 1: My Neighbour Totoro at the Barbican-What is My Neighbour Totoro about?-The consoling figure from the forest, but does the play lack jeopardy?-The puppets – the most ‘chickeny chickens’ on the WestEnd ever, puppeteers, direction and cast-The music score, sung in Japanese and English, by Joe Hisashi-Was the show too long, and was the acting any good?-The floating cat that isn’t neuteredPart 2: Superhigh Resolution at the Soho Theatre-The bang up to the minute story of a junior NHS doctor-Why it’s reminiscent of Tennessee Williams’s style-Why it’s an important, sometimes funny, but tough watch-Why you shouldn’t go Christmas shopping after watching the show-Jasmine Blackborow’s ‘deeply affecting’ central performance-The brilliant ingenious and simple set, entirely made by hospital curtains – by Andrew EdwardsWhat to watch in London right now? Well, this is your Theatre Review from the Evening Standard.For all the latest visit www.standard.co.uk/culture Find us on Twitter #TheLeaderPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.