Opposable Thumb is the co-creation of Dik Downey (co-founder of Pickled Image) and Adam Blake (associate artist with Wyldwood Arts and co-founder of Open Attic Company).
Dik and Adam have been working together since 2013 when they performed together in The Shop of Little Horrors. The show toured extensively and a successful performing partnership was forged. Dik invited Adam to work with him again on ‘Coulrophobia’ – a groundbreaking clown and puppet show made at Nordland Visual Theatre, on the remote Lofoten Islands, in 2014. Coulrophobia has been touring ever since, showing at numerous international festivals, generating rave reviews and standing ovations.
Dik Downey
Dik started his performing life at Glastonbury festival in 1983, painted yellow, playing kazoo whilst someone lay on a bed of broken cornflakes. He then ran away with the hippies, travelling through Europe as a crap juggler, fire-eater, cabaret artiste, escapologist and clown. Dik eventually returned to the UK to train (briefly) at Fool Time Circus School, eventually finding his natural home with renowned anarchic, Dada-esque street theatre company Desperate Men. A few years later, he was lured in from the cold by Green Ginger, performing and making for their shows ‘Slaphead’, ‘P.R.A.T.S’ and ‘Frank Einstein: Rewired’.
In 2000, Dik co-founded puppetry & theatre company, Pickled Image. Over the next 19 years, Dik conceived, designed, constructed and performed in most of their highly successful shows. He also makes puppets and masks for other companies and even finds time to teach puppet making at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.
Adam Blake
Adam went to uni to do Biochemistry with Molecular Biology, dropped out, did crap office jobs for a few years then moved to Bristol and slowly became a Clown. As well as his work with Dik he is an associate artist with Wyldwood Arts who specialise in inter generational projects, running improvised story sessions with primary school kids and residents of care homes. He also co-founded Open Attic Company, is a regular collaborator with The Wardrobe Theatre and has worked with notable companies such as Mufti Games, Beyond The Ridiculous, The Adventure Bureau, Terrestrial and Soap Soup.
Adam is a father and husband and loves his family very much.
