Take Off (None of This Should Have Happened)

“MAYBE SOMETHING NEW WILL ARISE FROM THE DISASTER”

Some events are so improbable that they are called accidents.

Accidents demand an explanation.

Looking back. Finding the oversight, the logical flaw, the error. Understanding. And learning.

In Take Off, José Padilla reconstructs the deadliest disaster in civil aviation history. It took place on March 27, 1977, on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport (Tenerife). Two Boeing 747s collided on the runway before takeoff. 587 people died. That is the accident.

Now for the explanation. On stage, Carlota Gaviño, Almudena Puyo, Kevin de la Rosa, and Lucía Trentini seek it out, bringing passengers, pilots, air traffic controllers, announcers, and narrators to life to reconstruct the chain of events that led to the tragedy. I will spoil the conclusion for you: nothing is enough on its own; everything proves decisive.

The writing is of a dizzying precision, combining documentary theatre, poetry, and suspense. The historical fact serves as a metonymy for our era: the illusion of control and the unsettling certainty that History changes through the accumulation of seemingly insignificant details.

Finally, the learning. If you feel safe on an airplane, it is thanks to this organized chance from nearly fifty years ago. That something like this never happens again—therein lies hope.

Pilar G. Almansa

Dramaturg of the 26/27 Season