Derbyshire artist (Mc Crown) brings African rhythm, comedy, theatre and storytelling to BAFA 2026
“The drum carries a language of its own,”
Nigeria-born, Derbyshire-based performing artist Adeoluwa Solomon Adebisi (artistically known as Mc Crown) has brought African percussion, theatre, spoken word and comedy together at the Bradford African Festival of Arts (BAFA) 2026, continuing a performance journey that began in Nigeria over 8 years ago.
There was no conventional introduction when Adeoluwa Adebisi stepped into the Theatre and Stage Play programme at this year’s Bradford African Festival of Arts. Instead, he reached for the drum and the rhythm became his introduction; setting the atmosphere for the theatrical experience while drawing on an African tradition in which drumming can function as communication, storytelling and a call to attention.
For Adebisi, who is now based in Derbyshire, the moment captured much of what his work is about: finding contemporary ways to bring African rhythm, oral expression, humour and theatre into the same performance space.
“The drum carries a language of its own,” Adebisi said. “African theatre has always had a relationship with rhythm, movement and storytelling. I wanted the audience to experience that connection before anything needed to be explained.”
Held in Bradford from 3–9 August 2026 under the theme “NKOSOO – Advancement and Progress,” BAFA brought together programmes spanning theatre, film, music, fashion, cultural performance and arts, with more thousands of people attending activities across the festival.
Adebisi performed across several parts of the programme, including the African Film Festival, Theatre and Stage Play programme, Fashion and Pageantry programme, African Open Market and Outdoor Festival, and Festival Award Night.
His performances moved between African drumming and percussion, spoken word and poetry, theatre, comedy, movement and cultural storytelling. Rather than presenting them as unrelated skills, Adebisi draws on the connections between rhythm, oral tradition, humour and dramatic expression.
Festival Director, Dr Olushola Kolawole, specifically assessing the uniqueness and distinctiveness of Adebisi’s contribution, mentioned that his performance is deeply rooted and influenced by African culture.
Before establishing himself in the UK, his work developed within Nigerian performance and cultural settings. During the Osun-Osogbo Festival in 2023 (among others), he performed through comedy, spoken word and poetry, African drumming and stage acting and disciplines that remain visible in his work today.
His UK practice has since taken those foundations into new cultural environments. In June, he performed at Nigerian Festival UK in Islington, before expanding that work across BAFA’s multidisciplinary programme in Bradford in August.
For Adebisi, performing African-rooted work in Britain also raises an important creative question: how can the culture remain recognisable to people who grew up with it while still welcoming audiences experiencing it for the first time?
“I don’t want to take something from African culture and turn it into decoration because I’m performing it in Britain,” he said. “I want someone who grew up around it to recognise that connection, but I also want somebody encountering it for the first time to feel part of the performance.”
That approach could be seen in the participatory character of his BAFA appearances, where percussion, humour, movement and spoken interaction helped bring audiences into the performance rather than leaving them simply watching from a distance.
Now developing his practice from Derbyshire, Adebisi wants to create more original work bringing together African percussion, theatre, poetry, comedy and storytelling, while collaborating with artists and cultural organisations across Britain and Nigeria.
He sees his growing UK practice not as a choice between Nigerian tradition and contemporary British performance, but as an opportunity to explore what can emerge when the two meet.
“I carry where I come from into the work,” he said. “But being here also gives me new a audiences, new collaborators and different ways of thinking about performance. I am interested in what those experiences can create together.”
And perhaps the simplest image from Adebisi’s week in Bradford says the most: a Nigerian-born artist, now based in Derbyshire, standing in a British theatre space and allowing an African drum to speak before he did.