Leeds companies Red Ladder and Mad Dogs collaborate on new dance theatre piece Taxi

Douglas Thorpe, who cemented his place in Leeds arts history when he became an early dancer with Phoenix Dance Theatre, concurs. “The worst thing would be that we created nothing new, or what the audience expected. We don’t want to replicate what people have done before – that’s what the arts are about, creating something new. Something different. We don’t want to be repeating ourselves,” says Thorpe.

Taxi has been a long time coming. Thorpe and Dixon have been in each other’s orbit for some time, discussing what they might make if they worked together. Now it appears the time is right for those discussions to come to fruition.

Working with writer Andrea Heaton, Taxi is based on the time Thorpe, a highly regarded contemporary dancer, spent working as a taxi driver. “A lot of the script is based on all of the people that I met when I was a taxi driver. It’s all of their stories that I heard, and we are retelling those stories. Some of them are a little more direct and they are also the stories of those people that you don’t get to hear from. That’s what really appealed to me, to be able to share all of those voices that you don’t usually get to hear. And it is not all doom and gloom, it was beautiful to meet someone.”

The driver and hero of the story is, despite the companionship of his passengers, alone, and he’s slipping into a dark place because of that loneliness.

“It isn’t all dark though because sometimes you meet people who are beautiful and so full of life, who you can have great communication with and that’s the perfect scenario of what a taxi driver can experience in a single day,” says Thorpe.

“As a driver, you’d meet people who were clearly struggling financially, yet those were the sort of people who would give you a tip. You wouldn’t believe the amount of time you’d pick up people who were clearly financially well endowed, but one of the reasons for that is that they are so well off is because they are greedy and inconsiderate of anyone else.

“Yet it is often those that are struggling, that are the most generous and recognise the job that you are doing and are grateful for it. And in taxi, I think I wanted to capture all of those people, all levels of human spirit and to capture their voices and to share their stories.”

Having two directors is unusual, but having Dixon and Thorpe at the helm means there are two highly experienced creators working in fields that they are at once familiar with, but also approaching with a little trepidation – Dixon into dance and Thorpe into ‘straight’ theatre.

Thorpe admits, failure is a possibility. “That really scares me as an artist because I can be in situations where I can’t afford to fail. I have to go back to things that I know can be successful. So I can get pushed into corner of repeating things. It helps to be in a situation where we recognise that failure is healthy.”

The failure Thorpe is describing relates to the rehearsal room, although he and Dixon acknowledge there are no guarantees once a piece as challenging as Taxi is put in front of an audience.

For Thorpe, the situation is nerve wracking, but, it seems, his experience as a taxi driver comes in use here as well.

“I’ve been in a couple of situations where I wanted to escape but couldn’t. Where I have felt vulnerable or could be attacked. A taxi driver has to be a politician to dodge a situation or sometimes even a comedian to diffuse situations.

"You really have to give credit to taxi drivers as they have to think on their feet whilst being confined in a tiny box on wheels. Some taxi drivers only last a couple of years, and I can understand why, as psychologically, the job can really affect you.”

A lot of reasons why this show is highly anticipated.

Taxi is at The Old Woollen, Sunnybank Mills, Farsley. August 10-20.

For details and to book tickets visit redladder.co.uk