Visiting theatre company staging touring plays

Osun Arts is a visiting theatre company which travels all across the UK and Europe staging touring plays to captivated audiences.

Although we are based in Great Britain, all our performers have an African background, so you can rest assured that every Osun Arts touring play is authentically African.

Our productions have graced the Commonwealth Games and the Queen’s Jubilee procession and has been supported by Arts Council England, Liverpool Culture Company and Powys Environment and Development Education Centre (PEDEC).

Traditional and contemporary theatre company

Osun Arts produces innovative traditional and contemporary theatre that tours nationally and internationally. 

With the collective help of our artists, we write, choreograph and perform motivational and spellbinding shows which always leave the audience spellbound.

We use talented professional artists as actors and actresses, with authentic costumes and props.

For the last 15 years, our theatre company has toured the UK and other parts of Europe and America.

Our tours have reached national and international audiences, using dance and theatre to encourage people to be curious about the mixture of yesterday and today’s world.

Touring plays

Our 2002 project Rhythms of African Dance (R.O.A.D.) was performed by the famous Nigerian Lamidi Ayankunle Yoruba Bata Ensemble and AyanAgalu Cultural Troupe, in collaboration with Osun Arts.

The two theatre companies visited England specifically to perform and stage workshops to share their skills and knowledge of African dance and music.

They performed in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester and the Queen’s Jubilee procession, as well as at various other venues and schools.

The performance featured elaborate costumes, energetic drumming, and tight dance routines: the drumming simulating thunderbolts and the dancing depicting flashes of lightning and electrical charges of the firmament.

R.O.A.D represented the dancers’ and the drummers’ individuality and inner joy in a powerful performance combining rhythms, vocals, acrobatics, poetry, dance, and drama.

The project was supported by North West Arts Board, Liverpool City Council, New Audiences Programme and Cultureshock.

African culture plays

Our project Ibadi toured the UK in 2004, representing the energy and excitement of African culture.

A powerful performance combining rhythms, vocals, acrobatics, poetry, dance, and drama, Ibadi was devised and performed by local and international artists, and included sacred dances from different parts of West Africa, such as Atilogwu from Anambra State, Apepe from Ogun State and Swange from Benue State.

Africa is made up of a wide range of ethnic groups, languages, beliefs, cultures, and costumes, but dance unites everyone.

Every dance holds its own deeply symbolic meaning and significance. West African dances start from the waist: West Africans believe in making use of their waist when dancing, which gives them the great ability to wiggle – the dances are not completed without including the wiggling.

The Yoruba people of mainly Western Nigeria, therefore, will say Ibadi ni ijo wa (“The dance is at the waist”).

The project was supported by Arts Council England, Liverpool Culture Company and Powys Environment and Development Education Centre (PEDEC).

The following year, Ariya – Celebration of Life went on a four-month national tour from April until August, representing the energy and excitement of African culture.

The piece was devised and performed by 10 experienced artists, presenting West African dances never seen before in the UK.