The story of Bibi and Bichu, whose lives Ethiopian Dreams is surreally based on, began some twenty years ago on the streets of Jimma, with two young brothers flipping and tumbling and wowing the crowds.
The brothers dreamed of joining the circus, but no circuses ever rolled into town, only rumors and televised glimpses from lands overseas. At 10 years old, inspired by these glimpses, Bibi and Bichu were sowing seeds into their socks and carving their own juggling clubs from blocks of wood. Self-taught and determined, they honed their skills on the city streets where they performed for the sheer love of performing.
They came to England in 1998 to perform at Brighton Fringe and stunned audiences and artists alike with their juggling skills. After making their home in the UK, Bibi and Bichu trained at the National Centre for Circus Arts, where they met Sean Gandini, director of Gandini Juggling, who cast them in the Millennium Dome celebrations, Big (2000), and later in Smashed (2012 and 2016) and Mozart’s Glow (2017). Sean has been a friend and mentor to them ever since. Bibi and Bichu have performed in thousands of shows that span the spectrum of the circus arts: from CBeebies’ ‘Justin’s House’ in London’s 02 Arena to the Olivier Award-winning ENO production of Akhnaten (2016). From 2002-2016, they were also resident jugglers at Giffords Circus, touring the south of England with shows that told and retold stories through the medium of circus. Interspersing live gigs with numerous TV appearances, they’ve juggled on the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, on ‘The Paul O’Grady Show’, ‘Ant and Dec’s Saturday 22 Night Takeaway’, ‘Blue Peter’ and Sky One’s ‘What’s Up TV’. In 2017, they were even cast in Disney’s most recent live-action movie, Tim Burton’s Dumbo (released March 2019), where they feature heavily in the circus scenes.
In 2010, they returned to Ethiopia as young men and found many would-be circus artists just like them, clamoring for audience and opportunity. So they started funding a circus school in the capital city called Circus Wingate. Though explosive with talent, with extraordinarily high standards (artists train there under Ethiopian gymnastics coach Solomon Tadese), the school was so sorely lacking in funds it was about to close. With Bibi and Bichu’s help it’s now a thriving and steadily growing charitable institution, with 150 students on roll and counting. The brothers soon started extending their help to other circus schools in the district, including Bita Brothers Circus and Sheger Circus.
Given how they started, and how much they owe to the help and the kindness of fellow artists, it’s very important to Bibi and Bichu to provide the same kind of support to other circus ‘dreamers’. The brothers soon found that their dream of joining the circus had turned into something else—the desire to create something more, and to change the ways of circus in Ethiopia. In 2017 Bibi and Bichu teamed up with the extraordinary artists at these circus schools to create Circus Abyssinia, a show which stages the creation of the world’s first Ethiopian circus and weaves the dreams of its cast and creators.
Since debuting to a standing ovation in London at Kingston’s Rose Theatre in 2017, the show has enjoyed two sell-out seasons at Edinburgh Fringe, performed highly successful runs in Singapore, at the Underbelly Festival in London, and at the 2018 Adelaide Fringe, where it won the ‘Pick of the Fringe’ Award in its opening week. The cast was even invited to perform on the 2017 Royal Variety Performance, where Circus Abyssinia shared a stage with Cirque du Soleil. Bibi says seeing this was a ‘moment of genuine emotion, of absolute pride. We were pinching ourselves’.
Circus Abyssinia has just completed its first world tour, which has included Adelaide Fringe in Australia, Brighton Fringe in the UK, the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan, the Sziget Festival in Budapest, a theatre and festival tour of Europe, a performance residency at NYU in Abu Dhabi and a 5-week run at the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis.