Marvel at the imaginative puppetry which brings the stage adaptation of Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away to life with a talk and demonstration featuring puppetry designer and director Toby Olié.
Adapted for the stage by Tony and Olivier award-winning director John Caird, the extraordinary production premiered at the Tokyo Imperial Theatre in 2022 and is currently showing at the London Coliseum. Performed in Japanese with spectacular puppets, dazzling set and costume designs and a live orchestra, Spirited Away tells the enchanting tale of Chihiro who, while travelling to a new home with her family, stumbles into a magical bathhouse ruled over by the sorceress Yubaba.
During the event, Toby Olié explains how puppetry was employed to bring to life the vast array of spirits and fantastical creatures who visit and work in the bathhouse, introducing the audience to some of the 50-plus ingenious puppetry elements developed for the production.
These include the mysterious spirit No-Face (also known as Kaonashi) who grows to an enormous size as he consumes the people around him; the boisterous frog-spirit Aogaeru; the spider-like boilerman Kamaji whose multiple arms are operated by puppeteers; and the Susuwatari soot sprites who scuttle around the boiler room carrying coal on their backs.
During the event, Toby gives a close-up demonstration of how some of the puppets are operated on stage.
The event starts at 18:30 and will last for about one hour.
About the Speaker
Toby Olié
Toby is a director, designer and performer of puppetry, a passion that has developed since making his first puppets at the age of six. Through his work spanning plays, musicals, opera and dance, Toby strives to blur the boundaries between movement and design. He fuses tradition and innovative techniques, creating compelling characters that lead audiences through fantastical, improbable and even impossible stories. His works as puppetry designer/director include Spirited Away (Imperial Theatre, Tokyo and London Coliseum), Animal Farm (UK tour), 101 Dalmatians (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Pinocchio (National Theatre), and Disney’s The Little Mermaid (in Tokyo, Moscow and The Netherlands).
Photograph: Helen Murray