Bisi Adigun

Bisi Adigun has lived in Ireland for twelve years and he's married to a fine Mayo woman (one of the many links De jimbe have to Mayo in the west of Ireland). He holds a BA and MA (Hons) in Drama Studies, MA (Hons) in Film&TV and he is currently on the doctoral programme in Drama studies in Trinity College Dublin.

He is a performing artist, an academic and co-presented the first three series of Mono, RTE's flagship television programme on intercultural Ireland. He wrote his first major play Moremi: the Goddess, which he also directed, for Waterford Youth Drama Ireland in 2000.

In 2003, Bisi founded Arambe Productions, Ireland's first African theatre company (www.arambeproductions.com) of which he is the artistic director. For the company, he has written and directed African Voices (2003), Once Upon A Time (a selection of African moon-lit stories) and Not So Long Ago (a dramatisation of experiences of African immigrants in Ireland (2005), co written the new version of The Playboy of the Western World (2006) which had its world premier at the Abbey in October 2007.

Also for Arambe, he has produced and directed The Gods Are Not To Blame (2004) Jimmy Murphy's The Kings of the Kilburn High Road with an all African cast (2006 and 2007), Ama Ata Aidoo's The Dilemma of Ghost (2007) and Through A Film Darkly by JC De Graft (2008).

Bisi is also proficient in many aspects of traditional drumming including congas, djembe and talking drum which he learnt at an early age in school and at home in Nigeria. He joined De jimbe in 1997 and had the wonderful opportunity to play with the band for more than five years traveling with them to Expo 2000 in Hanover, to New York, Korea and Senegal. He played for the ESB Millennium Drum Carnival in 1999 with the biggest drum in the world. He has played in the Point Theatre with The Pogues and The Dubliners and has also played with the traditional Irish group Whirlygig.

Bisi has given workshops in African percussion, dance and story telling to
schools and community groups and in arts centres all over Ireland, in the UK and America. As an actor, he has performed with Pan Pan, Fishamble, Galloglass, Calypso, Bedrock and Tall Tales theatre companies and Everyman's Palace Theatre in Cork.

Bisi's favourite quote 'Art is not a mirror to hold up to the society, but a hammer with which to shape it' (Bertolt Brecht)

His philosophy is 'if you can talk, you can sing, if you can walk, you can
dance and if you've got a heartbeat, you've got rhythm.'

HOBBIES; when Bisi is not busy, Bisi likes to play badminton