Raymond Keane is an Irish actor, clown, puppeteer and theatre writer and producer, known for founding the Barabbas Theatre Company in Temple Bar, Dublin.[1][2][3]
Keane was the voice of the puppet Pajo, from RTÉ One's Pajo's Junkbox, a children's TV show, also starring Rosemary Henderson.[1] Keane, as Pajo, topped the Irish charts with "Let's Wash our Socks for Christmas" novelty record,[4][5] returning to the charts in December 2014, as part of The Zog Chorus, a group of puppets from RTÉ Young People's Programming from the 80's and 90's, Zig and Zag, Bosco, and Dustin the Turkey, recording a charity single in aid of Childline.[6] In 1999 Keane portrayed a dying character on soap opera Fair City,[7] In 2014, Keane performed a series of Samuel Beckett plays in 14 Henrietta Street,[8] having performed site-specific performances of the playwright's work across Dublin city in 2009.[9]
In 2021 Keane was nominated along with Sarah Jane Scaife as Irish Theatre Awards Best Director for The Long Christmas Dinner, in the Abbey Theatre.[10]
Keane is an adjunct professor at Trinity College Dublin's School for the Creative Arts,[11] and a clown specialist at the Gaiety School of Acting.[12]