MotoBR
1. Project description
MotoBR is a documentary theatre piece exploring the lives and journeys of Brazilian delivery workers in London. Throughout the show, audience members are invited to look at the delivery world from the perspective of those who make it work; co-created and performed by five migrant couriers, the piece blends real stories, live music, reenactments, multimedia, and audience interaction into a funny, moving and thought-provoking experience.
The creative process integrates participants’ personal stories with their lifestyle and daily routine of 10-12 hours/day sitting in a motorcycle, revealing what life in London looks like from their unique perspective.
According to Transport for London, there are approx. 15-25 thousand del. workers in London, a figure to which Brazilians contribute to in a considerable way – apparently, they are used to low-wage jobs, long-hour shifts, and efficient driving through Brazil’s frantic traffic jams (Brazilians are also the biggest Latin American population in the UK!). yet, despite their numbers and the growing presence of this industry in our current lifestyle, these workers and their role in our society remain largely invisible “behind our orders”.
MotoBR project explores this context, bringing together workers with direct experience of this scenario to co-create a contemporary documentary performance, where testimonies, stories, video (archive footage+live feed) and live music are used to present a unique theatrical experience & shine light on how key aspects of our society – (cheap) labour, migration, technology, social distinctions – are increasingly connected in our post-pandemic, gig-economy dominated society.
2. Development
MotoBR was conceived by artist Gustavo Dias-Vallejo in mid-2023, when he started contacting and interviewing Brazilian delivery drivers in London. One year later, after receiving a DYCP grant from the Arts Council England, Gustavo organized a series of group sessions with some of the participants/interviewees, which allowed the project to take shape and led to the selection of an initial "cast". In 2026, the project finally had it’s official kickstart with a series of artistic residencies at the Battersea Arts Centre, New Diorama Theatre & BOLD Theatre.
3. Offshoots
Throughout its development, the project has generated several parallel artistic outcomes:
a) It was part of the Royal Academy of Arts outdoors exhibition (in parallel to their major show "Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism") with re-creations of famous Brazilian paintings with participants of MotoBR project. The images were exposed in billboards all around London between February-May 2025. (BuildHollywood article/interview about this project)
*the video interviews were conducted in Portuguese (MotoBR theatre show will be in English)
c) A gallery exhibition is currently being prepared, using extra video & audio material (from participants' routine on their motorcycles and recorded interviews) which will be exhibited in London and Dublin, in partnership with the Brazilian Embassy in both countries.
d) Lastly, the project envisions the publication of a book: a "London Guide" co-written with participants, exploring particular categories such as: best places to protect from the rain, best resting places, routes to avoid traffic, tips for places to eat, rest and call their friends and families overseas, etc.
4. Artistic references & inspirations
The project is inspired and in dialogue with current practices of contemporary documentary theatre (working with communities and non-professional performers) + in dialogue with established and prominent artists/companies such as Quarantine, Common Wealth, Mammalian Diving Reflex, Ping Chong & Company, Rimini Protokoll Milo Rau and Lola Arias. Some examples are:
1. Eat/Eat (Quarantine): Audience and performers share a meal together around a 10m long concrete table in Leicester’s oldest building. A song of love and loss is sung, an English lesson is taught by a teacher, photos of dispersed cast members are passed around, private conversation is made public... 9 performers, all Leicester-based refugees and asylum seekers, explore how we welcome people to our table, our country, our lives. When we talk about food, somehow we talk about everything…
2. Peaceophobia (Common Wealth): Peaceophobia is an unapologetic response to rising Islamophobia around the world. Part car-show, part-theatre, the show asks how do you find peace in a world that tells you who you are?
3. Minefield (Lola Arias): Minefield is a project that reunites Argentine and British veterans from the Falklands/Malvinas war to explore what is left of it in their heads 34 years later.
5. Creative team
- Gustavo Dias-Vallejo (lead artist/director) is a multi-disciplinary artist working in the intersection of theatre, performance, and creative projects with communities. His work explores the complexity of contemporary life – identity issues, latent struggles, displacements & interconnections between micro/macro & local/global issues. Initially trained as an anthropologist in Brazil, he started his career in the performing arts as Assistant Director for a street theatre company in Argentina. In 2016, Gustavo moved to the UK, where he found home with his family. He works across different contexts: fringe/experimental theatre, professional industry, community environments and educational institutions. He is currently part of Projekt Europa’s Artistic Advisory Board and Associate Artist at Exchange Theatre. His recent work has been funded by Arts Council England, British Council, and Camden Giving. Recent credits include collaborations with: Migration Matters Festival, ARK Margate, Royal Academy of Arts, Rich Mix, Camden People's Theatre, Torriano Meeting House.
He often leads creative/participatory projects with communities and has recently worked with refugees and asylum seekers, collaborating with institutions such as Young Roots and Tara Theatre. He is also a regular collaborator in drama schools, universities, and theatre venues in the UK, where he teaches devising, movement, physical theatre and contemporary performance making. (Recent teaching include: University of the Arts London, ArtsEd, Identity School of Acting, Rose Brufford, Middlesex University, The Cockpit Theatre).
- Participant/Performers (cast)
Dior Dias // Naira Brandão // Luiz Queiroz // Fabio Hernandez // Anne Silva (Brazilian migrants based in London, working in the courier/delivery industry.
- Sascha Gilmour (set designer) is an english-mauritian multidisciplinary artist and designer based in Manchester, UK. She works as a performance designer creating set, costume, installation, puppetry, event, exhibition and festival designs. Her practice is centred in ecological design, igniting social change, using food as a tool for gathering and sharing, creating caring environments and raising marginalised voices. She is a co-founder of the North West Design Allotment which champions designers that are based in the North West and a member of the Society of British Theatre Designers. Sascha works regularly with Common Wealth and other artists. Recent credits include collaborations with: Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse, Shakespeare North Playhouse, Staatstheater Mainz (Germany), MC2 Grenoble (France), Paperwork Theatre, The Lowry.
- Weronika Dwornik (producer) is an artist, producer, and facilitator working across different mediums, from devised theatre to filmmaking and participatory art. They are interested in ways of placing creativity & co-creation at the heart of community building. In 2024/25 she produced TASTE, a “performative gathering over a shared meal” in which artist Carlota Mato invited the audience (aprx. 150 people) to explore the rich multicultural tapestry of Bristol, alongside a community of migrant women. The piece was created in co-production with Trinity Centre, Borderlands charity and Bristol Refugee Week and was developed in consultation with Quarantine.
- Projekt Europa (co-producer) is an international theatre company making radical and generous work for local and global audiences. Directed by Maria Aberg, Projekt Europa produces migrant-led, multilingual theatre and performances, and supports migrant artists in the UK through several creative and development programmes. The company has recently received the International Award at The Stage Awards 2025.
6. Additional support & collaborators
- Embassy of Brazil
- Battersea Arts Centre
- New Diorama
- Counterpoints Arts
- The Bridge at Waterloo
- Theatre Deli
- Newington Green Arts
- Theatre Exchange
- Torriano Meeting House
- Criterium Theatre
- IWGB
- Battersea Arts Centre
- New Diorama
- Counterpoints Arts
- The Bridge at Waterloo
- Theatre Deli
- Newington Green Arts
- Theatre Exchange
- Torriano Meeting House
- Criterium Theatre
- IWGB
6. Recent work by lead artist Gustavo Dias-Vallejo
Utopiarium (2025)
Refugee Week Margate & Migration Matters Festival, Sheffield
What would your Utopia look like?
Utopiarium is a participatory event where people are invited to sit on beach chairs for around 30 minutes and have a conversation with a stranger about different (and better) versions of the future.
Participants receive a conversation guide and playfully explore the premise of an “ideal society”. Starting with questions such as “what would you bring (or not) to your utopia?” or “what would definetely exist (or not)..." , the conversation later shifts towards bigger topics such as wealth and inequality or educational and criminal systems – confronting our personal dreams with a wider social awareness.
***
concept & production: Gustavo Dias-Vallejo
co-producers (Margate): Elinor Seath & Jan Ryan (ARK Cliftonville)
co-producers (Sheffield): Weronika Dvornik & Migration Matters Festival
Refugee Week Margate & Migration Matters Festival, Sheffield
What would your Utopia look like?
Utopiarium is a participatory event where people are invited to sit on beach chairs for around 30 minutes and have a conversation with a stranger about different (and better) versions of the future.
Participants receive a conversation guide and playfully explore the premise of an “ideal society”. Starting with questions such as “what would you bring (or not) to your utopia?” or “what would definetely exist (or not)..." , the conversation later shifts towards bigger topics such as wealth and inequality or educational and criminal systems – confronting our personal dreams with a wider social awareness.
***
concept & production: Gustavo Dias-Vallejo
co-producers (Margate): Elinor Seath & Jan Ryan (ARK Cliftonville)
co-producers (Sheffield): Weronika Dvornik & Migration Matters Festival
“It was a wonderful experience and it really made me think and reconsider the way we live! When it ended, I just wanted to keep talking to that person that was no longer a stranger!” Participant (Sheffield)
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It Happened Here (2024/25)
September 2024 (Kentish Town - London)
June 2025 (Heeley - Sheffield)
Every neighbourhood is filled with stories that we can't see: the corner where someone had their first kiss, the wall where you left your bike before it was stollen, or the place you were standing when you saw someone for the last time.
It Happened Here is a participatory performance project where people are invited to recall meaningful events in their lives that happened in specific places in their area. Participants walk together, share their stories, and have their photograph taken: in the image, each person holds a sheet of paper with a sentence that summarizes the story they share with that place. (Protographs, stories and maps are used to create a parallel exhibition)
This project was originally developed in partnership with Torriano Meeting House, in Kentish Town, to celebrate the centre's 40th years anniversary. Later, it was invited to be part of the Migration Matters Festival programme in Sheffield (2025). *
London (Kentish Town)
conceived/edited by Gustavo Dias-Vallejo
design: Emily Johns
assistant producer: Lauren Low
produced by Gustavo Dias-Vallejo & Torriano Meeting House
generously funded by Camden Giving
*
Sheffield (Heeley)
conceived/edited by Gustavo Dias-Vallejo
producer: Weronika Dvornik (Migration Matters Festival)
‘A new exhibition at the Torriano Meeting House aims to get neighbours talking about the streets where they live’ Newspaper article/review at Candem New Journal
The Call (2023)The Call is a performance project in which religious leaders from different traditions share the stage to talk about their personal lives and their spiritual calling. Through memories, hi/stories, songs and ceremonies, the performers go from the mundane to the sublime, creating an aesthetic experience that merges autobiography, ritual and performance.
Throughout 6 months, participants took part in a devising process where they explored performative ways to approach their personal lives (memories, family stories, intimate ceremonies) in relation to their calling - going from the mundane to the sublime and creating an aesthetic experience that merges autobiography, ritual and performance.
By investigating different stories, notions and behaviours related to spirituality, the project looks into different ways of searching for meaning in the contemporary world while also posing the question: is it possible to share the stage/space with someone whose ideology seems to be completely different from mine?
***
Cast & creatives:
Swami Surya Prabha Didiji
Rev. Cantor David Rome
Reverend Charles Pickstone
Pai Rogério de Oxóssi.
Director: Gustavo Dias-Vallejo
Set Design: TK Hay
Producer: Anna Oggero
Co-Producer: David Furlong (Exchanget Theatre)
Generously supported by Arts Council England & Exchange Theatre.
Throughout 6 months, participants took part in a devising process where they explored performative ways to approach their personal lives (memories, family stories, intimate ceremonies) in relation to their calling - going from the mundane to the sublime and creating an aesthetic experience that merges autobiography, ritual and performance.
By investigating different stories, notions and behaviours related to spirituality, the project looks into different ways of searching for meaning in the contemporary world while also posing the question: is it possible to share the stage/space with someone whose ideology seems to be completely different from mine?
***
Cast & creatives:
Swami Surya Prabha Didiji
Rev. Cantor David Rome
Reverend Charles Pickstone
Pai Rogério de Oxóssi.
Director: Gustavo Dias-Vallejo
Set Design: TK Hay
Producer: Anna Oggero
Co-Producer: David Furlong (Exchanget Theatre)
Generously supported by Arts Council England & Exchange Theatre.
“The Call is a brilliant show, authentic and uplifting! At the beginning I didn’t know
what to expect, four spiritual leaders on stage, but curiosity let me there and it was
an unforgettable evening! I enjoyed every moment as the four different pathways somehow meet on the crossroad of understanding life! An unforgettable, wonderful experience! Pure celebration of humanity!” Anastasia Revi (theatre director)
