From 28 April to 11 May 2025, the Auditorio de Tenerife will welcome the artistic residency of José Padilla, who will be working on his latest project, Take Off [Nada de esto tuvo que haber ocurrido] (Take-off: None of This Should Have Happened).
The commission, granted by the Auditorio de Tenerife, is a dramatic reconstruction of the circumstances surrounding the airline crash at Los Rodeos airport in 1977, the 48th anniversary of which was on March 27, coinciding with World Theatre Day.
After José Padilla completed the initial project based on his research, the work process commenced with this artistic residency, culminating in an initial presentation of the piece with actors Almudena Puyo, Carlota Gaviño, Lucía Trentini, and Tony Galán. José Pablo Polo oversees the music and sound. This will also include the initial stages of promotion, during which the project will be pitched to cultural authorities in Spain and abroad. Afterwards, more cast and crew members will join the project, including actor Kevin de la Rosa, who was in attendance at the presentation. Coordination with production will begin for performances scheduled for March 2026 in the La Salita Hall of the Auditorio.
Take off [Nada de esto tuvo que haber ocurrido] tells the story of the worst disaster in aviation history. On March 27, 1977, the 747 Jumbo on KLM flight 4805 departed from the airport of Schiphol for Gran Canaria with 234 passengers and 14 crew members onboard. Another aircraft, PanAm flight 1736, had departed from Los Angeles and stopped in New York, carrying 380 passengers and 16 crew members. A series of unexpected developments, particularly bomb threats at Gando Airport, prevented both planes from arriving at their destinations. The two aircraft coincided at Los Rodeos airport in what was apparently meant to be a brief stop.
After midday, KLM Captain Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten was instructed to taxi down the length of the runway after completing a 180-degree turn to get into the take-off position. The captain advanced the throttles, and First Officer Klaas Meurs told him they had not been given clearance to take off. The captain was an experienced instructor who was accustomed to teaching new pilots to take matters into their own hands without seeking authorisation. He told Meurs to radio the tower again, and the latter read the flight clearance back to the controller, completing the readback with the statement, ‘We are now at take-off.’ Misunderstandings ensued, and a disaster took the lives of 583 people.
According to Padilla, the project Take off [Nada de esto tuvo que haber ocurrido] aims to be a fictional work, free from the restrictions of a purely commemorative tribute, and it is intended to reveal our past as a construct and a necessary step towards interpreting the present. The director acknowledged that this is not the first experiment in historical theatre, pointing out that theatrical works have often drawn on history as a source of inspiration. He went on to state that this work is meant to reflect an event from the past that holds great international significance and draws parallels with our present.
Jose Padilla: author and director of the project
Born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1976, he holds a degree in Textual Interpretation from the Royal Higher College of Performing Arts (RESAD) in Madrid. To date, he has directed 18 theatrical works and written nearly 30 scripts, including original and adapted works. As a director, he has overseen shows such as the Max Awards Ceremony, held last year at the Auditorio de Tenerife’s Symphony Hall.
His accolades include the 2019 Max Award for Performing Arts for Dados, which he wrote and directed. Towards the end of 2018, the French state theatre Comédie-Française awarded him with the Coup de Coeur for his text Las crónicas de Peter Sanchidrián. A year before that, his direction, staging and recreation of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure earned him the 2017 Gayarre Award, given to him by the local government of Navarre.
A few months before that, his script and direction of Perra Vida, a creative adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes’ novel El casamiento engañoso, won the Almagro Off Award at the International Classic Theatre Festival of Almagro. In 2013, his prestigious track record and career were consolidated with the win of the awards Premio El Ojo Crítico de Teatro and Premio Réplica as the best Canarian author for his text Porno Casero. He is the co-author of Historias de Usera, which won the 2017 Max Award for Best Show.