'Kiki's Delivery Service' Comes To The Stage This Christmas

There's a rich tradition in UK theatre of productions for family audiences that are put on at Christmas time. For the most part they are 'pantomimes'- garish adaptations of fairy stories featuring casts of d-list celebrities and local actors. Some of the more enterprising theatrical companies, however, have thought outside the box. This Christmas, the Southwark Playhouse will run a stage adaptation of Kiki's Delivery Service.

The play (and the book and film for that matter) centres on Kiki, a 13-year-old witch who has to leave her home and family for a year, as part of a witchy-tradition. With her faithful black cat Jiji, she rides off on her broom to find her new home


We should probably say that technically this isn't an adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki's beloved 1989 film. As with the anime, and the more recent live-action adaptation, this is actually an adaption of the original 1985 Japanese novel be Eiko Kadono. The stage adaptation is written by Jessica Sian.

However, we would be pretty surprised if the Studio Ghibli film didn't have at least some influence on this- check out the style on that promotional art for starters. The play will run at the Playhouse from December 8th to January 8th. Tickets can be bought here.

This isn't the first time a Miyazaki related play has been staged in the UK. The same theatre previously ran an adaption of Howl's Moving Castle (again based on the original novel) while the Whole Hog Theatre company famously staged an adaptation of Princess Mononoke in 2013.