La Florida

La Florida
by Víctor Sánchez Rodríguez (Spain), 2022
Two male, three female.

‘The audience will be captivated’, Cine Nueva Tribuna
‘An impeccable comedy with unforgettable characters […] A magnificent writer’, Entre Focos

Murder on the Spanish costas: a smoky noir with a twist, from the writer of London productions We Won’t Kill Each Other with Guns (Rosemary Branch) and Cuzco (Theatre503), a dark comedy from the award-winning playwright and screenwriter Víctor Sánchez Rodríguez

On Spain’s Mediterranean coast, politicians and developers alike dreamed of a Californian-style paradise. Amidst the palm trees and within sight and earshot of the crashing waves, this town should be a tourist’s dream come true. And in the summer, it is. The sunlight for hours, long promenades, sand, sea, relaxation… and pleasure. But who would stay here all year round? What happens in the winter when the cold winds come, the pools are drained and the nights draw in? With not even a shop for miles, who would choose to remain in a ghost-town out of season? When a body is found in La Florida, a seafront apartment complex like so many others, Antonio, the detective assigned to the case, is about to find out. Most of the flats are empty, but a few souls remain. A singer, a fortune-teller, a runaway mother and a delicate flower hiding from the light. Antonio uncovers their secrets and inches closer to the truth, but cannot escape his own mortality. Víctor Sánchez Rodríguez’s latest play is a noir for the contemporary age.

-Hello?
-We’ve had the autopsy results. Drowning.
-He drowned in the pool?
-You heard right. Lungs filled with water.
-What about the blow to the head?
-Just knocked him out. They must have chucked him in the pool after that.
-I’m thinking…
-What about? This week’s restaurant?
-There’s something I don’t understand… Why risk throwing him in the pool?
-Cover their tracks?
-That’s stupid, Roberto. You cover your tracks but you risk one of the neighbours seeing you.
-The neighbours didn’t see anything, none of them?
-Or hear anything. Seems they all take sleeping pills.
-But it’s such a quiet place.
-Sometimes silence is heavier than noise.
-You know what’s keeping me awake? That the flat was so empty… Even the victim’s computer had gone; we’ve no way to ID him, not a single document.
-They emptied the place, tortured him, gave him all those cuts, hit him, panicked, took anything that might incriminate them and ran off. That makes sense.
-Right, but he drowned. Someone had to throw him in the pool.
-So who the fuck was it?
-There’s something else. He had seventy thousand euros stashed there. Hidden under a floor tile.
-Interesting…
-What are you thinking?
-I’ve got the tenants register here. There’s something weird about it.
-What’s that?
-I checked all the names. They don’t exist.
-They’re made up?
-Exactly, Roberto. They’re all made up.

La Florida was translated during and with the support of the inaugural theatre translation residency at the Arniches Theatre, Alicante, funded by the IVC, the Institute for Culture of the government of the Valencia.

Images from the world premiere production in Spain, 2022, starring Silvia Marsó, Vito Sanz, Lorena López, Francisco Reyes and Amparo Fernández (Octubre Producciones/Teatro Español).