But among these American puppet idols hanging around Henson’s company is a gem that will thrill fans of Studio Ghibli in Japan. It is the wandering catbus from the 1988 fantasy animated film My Neighbor Totoro. For the uninitiated, this is exactly what it sounds like: a bus with an inflatable tail, fur seats and projector eyes that quickly reaches the screen, breaks into a Cheshire smile and causes a wild miaow. This must be one of the most anticipated moments in the upcoming stage adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare Company in London, which last month broke the Barbican box office sales record in one day. Tickets got even hotter when it was announced that Jim Henson’s creature shop would be making the puppets. The goat American puppet of the series, Basil Twist, enjoys the challenge. “I’m glad people are calling me, ‘How are we going to do that?’ He laughs before he slaps his fist in his mouth. Making eyes ουν work at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Photo: Jay P Morgan © RSC I’m here to meet some of the Totoro team, but, as this is the new regularity of theater, Twist has Covid, so he comes with us via laptop. The Creature Shop creative supervisor, Peter Brooke, and the construction supervisor, Scott Johnson, let me search the area where the catbus and co would take place for the stage. There is a room for mold making, sculpture and engineering. another for foam and fabric – the basic materials made by Henson superstars Muppets. There are animatronic tricks all around – Brooke and I are working on the handles of a device to bring a puppet tentacle to amazing life. Cables, laptops, and a 3D printer look like glue pots, scissors, and brushes, echoing the combination of handmade and digital production techniques used at Ghibli headquarters. Although best known for television and film, the Creature Shop has been collaborating on stage productions for some time and next year will bring Henson’s Dark Crystal to the Royal Opera, choreographed by Wayne McGregor. Totoro puppets are still shrouded in secrecy, but Twist believes it is important to present magical scenes from a child’s point of view. In the film, sisters May and Satsuki move to the countryside with their father while their mother recovers. There they discover a world of soot elves and the blue-green spirit of the Totoro forest, which we see for the first time through Mei’s eyes. The puppet show will not be limited to creatures, but will inform the whole scene: even the unoccupied family house is a puppet. Caresses… the spirit of Totoro wood. Photo: Walt Disney Pictures / Allstar Joe Hisaishi – who composed the sad and enchanting music for the film, which includes an irresistibly optimistic opener (“Hey, let’s go! Hey, let’s go!”) – received the blessing of film director Hayao Miyazaki to take over this international cooperation. His music will be played by a band on stage, not hidden in a pit. Totoro director Phelim McDermott says that when he first asked Hisaishi who he had in mind about puppetry, he expected him to suggest a veteran Japanese bunrak art teacher. But Hisaishi nominated Twist, an old friend of McDermott’s. Early on, Twist made some prototypes of Totoro “from very humble materials” to show off to Japanese production partners. “And they got it – not because of the humility of the materials but because of it,” says Twist. Twist, who studied puppetry traditions in Japan, emphasizes the calm and elliptical nature of Totoro’s narrative, which contrasts with the western animated style that relies more on the plot for young audiences. “The first scene where we see Totoro is actually asleep,” says Twist. “He doesn’t do much.” There is a challenge to bringing the meditative rhythm of the film to the huge Barbican theater. “He has this mysterious stillness, so, for a show, it’s like, hmm” – Twist scratches his head like Stan Laurel – “how will this work?” “Totally into Miss Piggy”… the main puppet player Basil Twist. Puppetry, Twist suggests, is about “something that mysteriously comes to life,” so it is inherently associated with the Japanese Shinto tradition, which recognizes the spirits that exist in nature and infuse Totoro history. May and Satsuki’s dad talk about a time when trees and people were once friends. Only children can see Totoro and have this special relationship with nature. This is a strong message in the midst of our climate crisis, although McDermott emphasizes that the film is never instructive. Twist is known for productions that use natural elements for their effects. At the Symphonie Fantastique, set in Berlioz, the fabrics swirled and sparkled in a pool of water as if they were sea creatures. Put a piece of cloth in the water, he says, “and you really don’t have to do much and it becomes completely alive. Play a piece of music and it will be in the music “. Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” was directed with inflated silks and smoke. When Alfonso Cuarρόνn brought him to work on the Dementors’ appearance in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Twist created them with fabrics for a flowing effect. “Eventually they did it all with computers,” he explains, but the style of the monsters that nurture happiness came from “screen tests we did with water and wind.” As a child, Twist was obsessed with the Muppets and “completely in Miss Piggy.” A shy student referenced books at school with the help of his puppets. People assume he has a stage name – after all, it captures the eccentric wonder of his performances – but in reality he is Basil Twist III, a third-generation puppeteer. His grandfather was a leader of the big band whose action used puppets of music stars, including Cab Calloway. When Twist was 10 years old, his grandmother gave him these puppets and “sealed the deal.” Growing up in San Francisco, he had attended puppet shows staged by his mother and friends at hospitals and birthday parties. In a little while he was making his own performances, giving roles to his younger brothers: “I was always the impresario”. Exit, chased by a bear… Twist’s silk solution for The Winter’s Tale Royal Ballet production. Photo: Tristram Kenton / The Guardian When Christopher Wheeldon recruited him for the release of The Winter’s Tale at the Royal Ballet, Twist undertook Shakespeare’s famous diabolical direction: “Exit, chased by a bear.” His solution was to paint the animal on a huge piece of silk whose movement was choreographed with as much care and echo as the dance. In London, Twist collaborated with Kate Bush on Before the Dawn concerts. “It was a big, ambitious project outside the normal context of the way rock concerts or stage productions are performed,” he recalls. His work was interwoven with that of the magician Paul Kieve. “We ended up being a kind of barometer of how the project could or could not succeed, because of the sensitivity of how the magic tricks or the puppet show helped guide the whole project.” Henson has similarly made puppets for musicians such as Lady Gaga and Kanye West. Today’s musical acts use sophisticated digital graphics, Brooke acknowledges, but the physical space that dolls occupy in a scene is “a result that digital could not compete with.” What did Kanye’s monster look like? “A big dragon with sand worms,” says Brooke. Is it in their workshop or at Kanye’s mansion? Johnson laughs: “He has it in his desert band.” Ye Gods… The creation of dragons from Henson sand worms for Kanye West, who now lives in the singer’s desert. Photo: YouTube Mainstream theater has embraced puppetry to a great extent. The Lion King and War Horse helped pave the way, and RSC’s latest Christmas family show, The Magician’s Elephant, had an ear-shaking delight, shaking the trunk of a main attraction, controlled by a trio of puppeteers . However, earlier this year, some eyebrows were raised when the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor was shared by the Life of Pi tiger puppet control team: one gives the creature a voice and three pairs of performers represent his head, heart and back. Is this acting or puppetry? “It’s a performance at the end of the day,” says Brooke. “There is no reason why a horse or a tiger is not a member of the cast.” Johnson believes the award shows that people ultimately see beyond the technical side of puppetry to appreciate acting that is inherent in the art form: “In the past, when you were hiring for a film, producers were often confused about whether to hire actors or technicians behind the scenes “. Brooke says that puppetry in Britain, where he grew up, has always been limited to children’s theater and television, while in other parts of the world it is recognized as an advanced form of adult storytelling. A really well-made puppet, Twist believes, already has a built-in performance – whether it is wooden, sewn or sculpted. A good puppeteer teases these qualities instead of forcing the object into specific movements. “Often in puppetry, we say we manipulate a puppet,” he says, “but I prefer the concept of ‘animating.’ You give something to life “. Working with the Henson company, he knows that puppets will have this magic built into them. “Then,” he says, smiling, “we can let them do their own thing.”
My Neighbor Totoro is located in Barbican, London, 8 …
