'My Neighbour Totoro' sisters Victoria Chen and Ami Okumura Jones on taking the show to the West End

Victoria Chen and Ami Okumura Jones play sisters Satsuki and Mei in the heartwarming RSC production of My Neighbour Totoro, which opened at the Barbican in 2022 and now transfers to the West End.

“I’ve avoided going near the Gillian Lynne, I’ve been saving it for the start of our tech rehearsals,” says Ami Okumura Jones of returning to record-breaking show My Neighbour Totoro, which begins its third London run this month — and its first in the West End. She continues: “I want to save that full impact for when I go inside the building. I think it’ll be emotional.”

Part of the original 2022 Barbican cast, Okumura Jones returns in the role of Satsuki, a young girl who moves to the countryside with her father and younger sister Mei (played by Victoria Chen, also in her West End debut) when their mother becomes sick. Okumura Jones and Chen talk to London Theatre Magazine about growing up with the Studio Ghibli film, playing children, and what they hope audiences take away from the production.

Who do you play in the show?

Victoria Chen: Mei is an amazing four year old. She’s curious about the world, bold, headstrong, and open to possibilities. She’s brave and full of wonder.

Ami Okumura Jones: And she’s naughty!

Chen: According to Satsuki!

Okumura Jones: Who I play — she is Mei’s older sister and she’s 10 years old. Their mother is ill and these two girls have moved from the city to the countryside to be closer to her. Satsuki feels like she has to take on this responsibility and become the parent, and is this precocious little grown-up. What’s emotional about this story is watching this little kid, who’s so desperate to become responsible and hold the family together.

What is it like playing children?

Chen: The creative team will come up to me and say, "I know you're a grown-up, but when you’re playing Mei, you just remind me so much of my niece or my nephew or my sister when they were four." It requires a lot of team work and magic.

Okumura Jones: If you’re trying too hard to be a child, it doesn’t work. There’s a collective, imaginative effort, which includes the audience. She’s clearly not a four-year-old, but there’s this collective contract among the cast that transforms us into children. We were given a note at one point, which said: “It’s not your job to play a four year old, it’s everyone else’s to treat you like a four year old — and that’s what makes you four.” And somehow that spirit of childhood does arrive in the room.

Victoria, how does it feel to be making your West End debut in My Neighbour Totoro?

Chen: When I moved to London, I was watching all these shows — My Neighbour Totoro being one of them — and seeing all these people on stage, and I’d go, "What I’d give to have a career like theirs. What I’d give to learn from them.” And now we’re all in the same rehearsal room. It’s crazy.

Ami, you were a part of the original 2022 Barbican cast, whereas Victoria, you’re starring in My Neighbour Totoro for the first time. In some respects, does it feel like you’re experiencing that big sister/little sister dynamic in real life?

Chen: I do feel it! It’s a very unconventional process, so to have someone who has actually done it, is so helpful. In rehearsals, Ami will sometimes whisper to me: “And now this is going to happen” and it does feel like a big sister taking care of me. It’s lovely to have that dynamic.

Were you fans of My Neighbour Totoro before being cast in the show?

Okumura Jones: I’ve been asked before, “When was the first time you saw the film?” and the answer is, I can’t remember. The Ghibli films were always part of my life growing up. What was more strange was growing up and realising not all children in this country have seen Ghibli. I was taken aback by how popular it is [here]. Studio Ghibli and Totoro have been a huge phenomenon, so that has been amazing to witness. I’ve met little kids who have become Studio Ghibli fans by coming to see us at the Barbican.

Chen: I love that they’re not saying, “You’ve got to see that Asian play or Asian story.” It’s just “that story.” It’s just a story, and it comes from a particular culture, but we’re all human and we all relate to that story.

How does My Neighbour Totoro honour Japanese culture?

Okumura Jones: We owe a lot to our current, third-time-round family, but also our first two families in the show. There was a real effort to have actors who were either first-generation Japanese immigrants or who are of Japanese heritage. It meant we were able to feed in those details that you will just miss if you don’t have that presence in the room. I got a note at one point from one of the musicians who was Japanese and told me, “You’re not holding your chopsticks correctly!” Because I grew up in Hong Kong, not Japan. Little chopsticks politics!

Do you have a favourite moment in the show?

Chen: When I saw My Neighbour Totoro, I tweeted: “The Olivier Awards need to have a category for curtain calls” because they would sweep it. It’s my favourite curtain call in the world.

What do you hope audiences take away from the production?

Chen: Hope and hold your loved ones close.

Okumura Jones: Take away whatever you need. I think I’ve stolen that line from our writer Tom Morton-Smith, but he’s absolutely right. If you’re a four year old and you want a magical adventure with some big creatures in the forest, then that’s what you need. And if you’re grieving the loss of a loved one, or you’re dealing with illness, then the show might be healing. Under the surface of this show, there is so much there.

Chen: The Japanese term is ‘ma’, meaning the space between, and hopefully we’ve managed to capture that.

Book My Neighbour Totoro tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Victoria Chen and Ami Okumura Jones. (Photo by Matt Crockett)

This article first appeared in the March 2025 issue of London Theatre Magazine.