Kiki’s Deliv­ery Ser­vice is being adapt­ed for the stage

In a time when Har­ry Pot­ter was a mere twin­kle in his par­ents’ eyes, Hayao Miyazaki’s won­der­ful 1989 film Kiki’s Deliv­ery Ser­vice offered whim­si­cal insight into the tri­als and tribu­la­tions of being young and charged with super­pow­ers. Accom­pa­nied by a snap-talk­ing black cat called Jiji, Kiki is the witch-in-train­ing who is post­ed off by her moth­er from the coun­try­side to the city where she can learn how to use her pow­ers for the greater good. The film remains one of Stu­dio Ghibli’s most beloved cre­ations (and Kiki one of its most beloved char­ac­ters), and it ends very mem­o­rably with a death-defy­ing diri­gi­ble chase across the rooftops of a quaint Mit­tel-Euro­pean burg.

Would it be pos­si­ble to attain the full-strength Kiki expe­ri­ence any­where oth­er than via ani­ma­tion? It has been proven than the ani­mé-to-live-action switcheroo is not impos­si­ble. In 2013, Whole Hog The­atre suc­cess­ful­ly adapt­ed Ghi­b­li clas­sic Princess Mononoke for the stage. They recre­at­ed the oth­er­world­ly ani­mé aes­thet­ic by cre­at­ing an army of Ghi­b­li-esque wood­land ghouls from recy­cled mate­ri­als. The con­cept of the the­atri­cal per­for­mance was such a hit among crowds that tick­ets sold out in four and a half hours, and that was nine months before open­ing night.

This forth­com­ing Kiki’s Deliv­ery Ser­vice adap­ta­tion is being direct­ed by Katie Hewitt who recent­ly received the 2016 Roy­al The­atri­cal Sup­port Trust Direc­tor Award, which was judged by Ian McK­ellen among oth­ers. She has worked along­side Oscar-win­ner Sam Mendes as Asso­ciate Direc­tor on his recent pro­duc­tion of Char­lie and the Choco­late Fac­to­ry: The New Musical.

South African born Jes­si­ca Siàn had the hon­our of adapt­ing the mys­ti­cal tale, which was itself based on a 1985 nov­el by Eiko Kadono. Siàn earned recog­ni­tion after her debut play, Klip­pies (which was also with South­wark Play­house), suc­cess­ful­ly received rave reviews dur­ing its ini­tial four week run. Since her debut, Siàn has been writ­ing her sec­ond play The Knock-Knock Bea­t­le as well as rein­ter­pret­ing Stu­dio Ghi­b­li masterpiece.

Kiki’s Deliv­ery Ser­vice plays at the South­wark Play­house from 8 Decem­ber to 8 Jan­u­ary 2017. For more details head to south​wark​play​house​.co​.uk