Tenerife-born playwright Jose Padilla presents this research work on the 1977 Los Rodeos accident across nine performances.
The play Take-off [Nada de esto tuvo que haber ocurrido] (Take-off: None of This Should Have Happened) is to premiere this week at the Auditorio de Tenerife. The work is about the 1977 aviation tragedy at Los Rodeos Airport. Event details were shared by Tenerife Island Councillor for Cultural Affairs José Carlos Acha, the Artistic Director of the Auditorio de Tenerife, José Luis Rivero, and the playwright Jose Padilla, author of the work and stage director.
This work, commissioned by the Auditorio de Tenerife, had been scheduled for a run of seven performances in the Auditorio’s La Salita hall starting on Friday, 6 March. However, tickets sold out quickly, and two new performances have been added: Saturday, 14 March at 12 noon, and Sunday, 15 March at 5.30 p.m.
José Carlos Acha contextualised the project as part of La Salita: ’In addition to providing a stable offering of theatre and artist residencies, it creates in-house productions like this’. Commenting on the vast and award-winning output of Tenerife-born playwright Jose Padilla, Acha added, ‘He is not a promise but a reality of Canarian and Spanish playwriting’. He concluded by saying, ‘Take Off portrays a horrific event with tremendous beauty and great talent, showing the truth of the matter with elegance while shunning any aspect that might be considered a morbid look at the tragedy.
José Luis Rivero recounted, “When we presented La Salita a year and a half ago, I said it would be a multifaceted hall.” He added, “Besides theatre, where scripts challenge society and playwrights become more relevant, we provide artist residencies and offer resources and time for creation.” He noted this production is a new experience for Padilla, citing the playwright’s commitment to his scripts and approach to theatre. Finally, he spoke of Padilla’s role as stage director and the talented crew who underpin the production with professionalism.
Jose Padilla expressed gratitude for the overwhelming public response in Tenerife after tickets to the first seven performances sold out. He highlighted the main challenge of portraying such a significant event onstage with poetry and tact, which the cast has accomplished with subtlety and utmost respect for the victims. Padilla also praised the Auditorio de Tenerife for carefully undertaking this project without pressure for immediate success, which he sees as rare in theatre. Concluding, he cited La Salita as a model of best practice and predicted more examples of high-quality theatre from Canarian performing arts.
Tickets for these additional performances will be available from 10 a.m. tomorrow (Wednesday, March 4), at a single price of €8 and €5 for audiences under 30 on the website www.auditoriodetenerife.com, at the auditorium’s box office, or by dialling the phone number 902 317 327 from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Archiving and disseminating the work are progressing alongside its creation, writing, staging, and performance. To this end, the script is to be published as part of a new initiative specialising in opera, performing arts and music with the backing of the Auditorio de Tenerife. The publication will be presented on Monday, 9 March, at 6 p.m., in the La Salita hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife. Among those attending the event will be Conchita Piña, director of Ediciones Antígona, an established publisher of theatre scripts in Spanish. With this work, Padilla joins other playwrights the firm has published, including Juan Mayorga, María Goiricelaya and Alfredo Sanzol.
The project is written and directed by José Padilla and performed by Carlota Gaviño, Almudena Puyo, Kevin de la Rosa and Lucía Trentini. The creative team also includes José Pablo Polo (music and sound), Paula Quintana (choreography), Pau Fullana (lighting) and Eduardo Moreno (set design)
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, including bomb threats at Gando Airport, prevented both planes from reaching their destinations.
The two aircraft coincided at Los Rodeos airport, where they were meant to make 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.
Take off [Nada de esto tuvo que haber ocurrido] turns the tragedy into an onstage exploration of our understanding of the aviation accident. Jose Padilla does not attempt to recreate it but to look more closely at its circumstances, highlighting how a series of decisions, misunderstandings, and systemic pressures can lead to loss of life with mechanical precision.
The stage serves as an inquest into the disaster, combining human voices, historical echoes, and documentary excerpts in a layered structure. Pilots, passengers, air traffic controllers, and the personification of fog form a choir that fluctuates between data and delirium; between memory and fate.
Take Off does not seek to assign blame but instead reveals the tragic beauty of the mishap and the fragility of progress. This choral dramatic work explores the tension between technical precision and misfortune, as well as the contrast between language that seeks order and the silence that disrupts it. The accident is presented not as a breakdown of order, but as a reflection of it, offering insight into the underlying forces of time.
Blending elements of thriller, comedy, tragedy, and drama, the production transforms the theatre into a cancelled flight that moves from history to myth. It balances factual precision with poetic reflection, reminding us that catastrophes also reveal the order from which they arise.
Jose Padilla (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1976) holds a degree in Textual Interpretation from RESAD in Madrid, has directed 18 productions, and written nearly 30 scripts. Notable directorial work includes the Max Awards Ceremony at Auditorio de Tenerife.
His honours include the 2019 Max Award for Performing Arts for Dados, which he wrote and directed, and the 2018 Coup de Coeur from the Comédie-Française for Las crónicas de Peter Sanchidrián. A year before that, his direction, staging and recreation of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure (Medida por Medida) earned him the 2017 Gayarre Award, given to him by the local government of Navarre, and the Almagro Off Award for his adaptation of Cervantes El casamiento engañoso, titled Perra Vida. In 2013, he received both the Premio El Ojo Crítico de Teatro, a distinction bestowed by Spanish National Radio, and the Premio Réplica as best Canarian author for Porno Casero. He is the co-author of Historias de Usera, which won the 2017 Max Award for Best Show.