A Writer’s perspective from Andrea Heaton, based on an original concept from Douglas Thorpe

Taxi opened it’s doors this August at The Old Woollen, Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley. A collaboration between Red Ladder artistic director Rod Dixon and mad dogs dance choreographer Douglas Thorpe it was many years in the making. The Writer, Andrea Heaton (Heaton (Smile Club, Jack Frost, Football Freddie) shares her thoughts on the making of TAXI.

When I first visited R&D over three years ago the pair had already created a collection of intertwining characters with enough back story for a long running series. At the centre of it all, the Taxi Driver, a character who most of the time said very little at all. Peppered with ideas and moments of Doug’s own experience as a driver, there was a strong sense of this character’s emotional experience but not what his own identity or story might be. When I began to develop the script I decided to lean into this idea as a concept for the whole piece.

Why would this character, who spent his day travelling where he was told, trying to keep his head down, making sure not to talk about anything too risky like religion or politics, why would this guy be the main character? Taxi needed an imperative, a reason to speak; what better than to make Taxi’s story a matter of life and death?

Watching Douglas, and the skilled dancers who have developed Taxi, work was a change of perspective for me. As a writer so many characters start on the page, as an actor I’m led by the voice, by tone and use of language. But mad dogs company characters were in their bodies, deftly expressing the desires, needs and fears of the protagonists without exposition heavy dialogue.

This show could not be naturalistic, it would be physical and viscerally live. Working across genres, with a creative team who are not particularly interested in following the rules of theatre or dance, I had the freedom to write something I had never written before. I wanted to give Doug the space to create epic movement landscapes while telling a story that was intimate and compelling. I wanted to invite the audience on an emotional and spiritual journey with us.

I started by imagining the parade of customers who sat in Taxi’s cab day after day. They could be anyone, all blissfully unaware of who had sat in their seat beforehand, and each with their own agenda. Our Taxi driver catching glimpses of their multi-faceted lives and stories before they disappear from his world. Of the thousands of stories that one taxicab might contain, whose stories do we want to hear? Who do we miss?

After a three year journey with the project, and some expert navigation from dramaturg Lindsay Rodden, my script is now in the hands of the brilliant team Rod has assembled.  Zac Doughty’s set design will put our audience right at the heart of Taxi Driver’s world. Ed Heaton (Sound Designer and Composer) and Adam Foley (Lighting Designer) are plotting away to create an immersive experience through the city and beyond. The exceptional multi-rolling cast of five, Maya Carroll, Gerald Headley, John Kendall, Stephania Pinato and John Rwothomack are joined by a community chorus of Leeds folk in signature Red Ladder style.

Taxi is the story of a city, how the pieces fit together to make a whole. It is a story about humans, our loneliness and our desire for tangible connection. It is almost certainly not the story I would have written pre pandemic, it was not the route I expected to take. But here I am, and here you are, this is our journey now- this is who we are.

TAXI is at Leeds own Old Woollen, Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, from August 10th, I hope you’ll join us.