January 12, 2026
SEOUL – Bringing the boundless imagination of an animated world onto a live stage convincingly was such an impossible challenge that John Caird would start every rehearsal with “Today’s impossible task is …”
That, said the veteran director and honorary associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, is how he remembers the process of adapting Hayao Miyazaki’s beloved “Spirited Away” into a stage production.
“It’s such a fantastic world,” said Caird during a press event in Seoul on Wednesday ahead of the Korean premiere. “There is so much magic, so many different creatures of different scales, that it takes a lot of imagination — from the actors and from the audience, too — to believe in the things that are happening.”
More than two decades after its release, “Spirited Away,” the Studio Ghibli masterpiece that swept across a devoted fandom of Ghibli fans in Korea and around the world, winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003, has crossed yet another boundary — this time from screen to stage. Premiering in Japan in 2022, the production has since traveled to London and Shanghai before finally arriving in Seoul, where audiences are once again invited to enter Miyazaki’s enchanted universe.
Director John Caird (left) and co-translator Imai Maoko pose for a group photo after a press event at Seoul Arts Center, Wednesday. PHOTO: CJ ENM/THE KOREA HERALD
For Caird, best known for the original production of “Les Miserables” and “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby,” which won both Olivier and Tony Awards, the challenge was unlike any he had faced before.
“Miyazaki gave permission almost immediately,” said Caird. “We were told it was unlikely he would. But as soon as I was told, ‘You can do it,’ I thought, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to achieve that? It’s too difficult.'”
The coming-of-age story follows Chihiro, a young girl who stumbles into a mysterious world of gods and spirits and is forced to navigate its strange rules in order to survive. The film is infused with elements of Shinto belief (a polytheistic and animistic religion) as well as traditional bathhouses. Rather than relying on digital spectacle, the stage adaptation embraces analog imagination using puppetry. In particular, production designer Jon Bausor chose to model the bathhouse on a traditional Japanese Noh stage, allowing it to rotate and reveal multiple perspectives.
“For me, it’s his greatest film,” Caird said. “And one of the great theatrical advantages is that about 90 percent of the story happens in the same place. It’s all in the bathhouse. So you can imagine that as long as you create a credible bathhouse, you can tell the entire story.”
Complicating matters further was the timing. Much of the production was developed in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, with artistic collaborators scattered across continents.
“Spirited Away.” PHOTO: CJ ENM/THE KOREA HERALD
“So all our collaborators were Zooming in from around the world — designers from London and a composer from Chicago,” he said. “It made the difficult things in rehearsal not seem quite so difficult. If we can collaborate from all around the world on computers, maybe flying a little girl on the back of a dragon is not so hard after all.”
The production features live orchestral performances by an 11-member ensemble of music originally composed by Joe Hisaishi for the film. His score has been rearranged and orchestrated to suit the slower, more contemplative rhythm of the theater. Composer Brad Haak also contributed two short, newly written songs — simple melodies meant to resemble tunes people might hum while working or resting.
“The live music can heighten the emotions of the characters and create a variety of dramatic atmospheres for the storytelling,” Caird said. “Recorded music never has quite the same effect.”
“Spirited Away.” PHOTO: JOHAN PERSON/THE KOREA HERALD
Adding to the production’s significance is the casting of Mari Natsuki as Yubaba, the formidable witch who runs the bathhouse. Natsuki voiced the character in the original animated film and now embodies her onstage.
“Spirited Away” runs at the Seoul Arts Center through March 22. Subtitles are provided in Korean.