Black cab becomes cinema as immersive documentary brings taxi drivers’ stories to audiences across Britain
- Perry Richardson
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
Award-winning theatre company Dante or Die is taking a decommissioned London black cab on a nationwide tour this autumn, transforming the iconic vehicle into a miniature cinema where audiences can experience an immersive documentary exploring the lives of taxi drivers from across Britain.
The production, titled Driving Home, will premiere at Freedom Festival in Hull from 3 to 6 September before travelling to Norwich, Kent, Essex, London and returning to Hull later in the autumn. The free experience seats just three people at a time inside the cab, where a 20-minute documentary unfolds across the windscreen and side windows using projection, animation and spatial audio.
Rather than focusing on the mechanics of the taxi trade, the documentary examines the personal experiences of five professional taxi drivers and the communities they serve. The featured drivers are Ashley Arnold from Thurrock, Amberine Nawaaz from Bradford, Frank Anb Amonoo-Mensah from Peckham, Mihail Marin from Hull and Farhad Ghafoori from Medway. Their stories explore themes including migration, belonging, financial pressures, family life and community, reflecting the changing social landscape of contemporary Britain.
The production has been created and directed by Dante or Die Artistic Directors Daphna Attias and Terry O’Donovan, who said the project grew from their own experiences of making Britain their home after migrating to the UK more than two decades ago. They said conversations with taxi drivers during the research process repeatedly demonstrated how a taxi journey creates an environment where strangers often speak with unexpected honesty.
Attias and O’Donovan said: “There’s something unique about being in a taxi. You’re alone with a stranger, connected through the rear-view mirror rather than direct eye contact, and the journey somehow creates permission for unexpected honesty.” They added that many of the conversations began with the question, “Where are you from?”, with some drivers describing how concerns about prejudice influenced how they responded or even whether they altered their names to sound “less foreign”.
The immersive experience combines documentary filmmaking with animation, allowing audiences to move beyond the physical streets travelled by the drivers into visual representations of memories and imagined places. An original score has been composed by Mercury Prize-nominated artist Dr Obaro Ejimiwe, better known as Ghostpoet. Alongside the tour, Dante or Die will also work with local communities, including migrant and refugee groups, through a programme of creative workshops.
For the taxi industry, the production offers a rare public-facing portrayal of the profession that extends beyond transport. Instead, it presents licensed taxi drivers as witnesses to everyday life, highlighting their role in connecting communities and hearing first-hand the concerns, aspirations and experiences of passengers from every background.
Driving Home is free to attend, although tickets must be booked for available time slots throughout the tour. The production has been commissioned by Freedom Festival Arts Trust and Ideas Test, with funding from The Space, the Rayne Foundation and Arts Council England.
