13 MAY – 21 JUN 2026 From Tuesday to Sunday at 6.00 pm Post-show talk: 9 JUN 2026 Winner of the Barahona de Soto Prize, Ciudad de Lucena 2021
Please arrive well in advance as the auditorium will be closed once the performance has begun.
To collect tickets, our box offices will be open from Monday to Sunday from 2.30 pm to 8.30 pm.
Carolina África
Carolina África, Jorge Kent and Ahimsa
Bengoa Vázquez
Rodrigo Ortega
Pilar Calvo
David Martínez
Laura Cortón
Centro Dramático Nacional, La Belloch Teatro, Lo Llano and TIDI
About the show
A woman in postpartum recovery is forced to spend ten days in a public hospital, separated from her newborn baby due to exceptional circumstances.
During her stay, she shares a room with Teresa—an octogenarian with advanced dementia and a broken hip, who does not speak… but screams—and with a devoted public healthcare nurse who cares for them both with equal tenderness and dedication.
Told through the lens of comedy, the play dives into the soul and drama of these characters.
In this triangular relationship, they share joyful memories and painful trials, where emotions, affection and laughter erupt — and long-held secrets and unspoken guilt come to light.
Love, humour and hope in times of blackouts and storms. An ode to intimacy and tenderness in the pursuit of living a good life (Una buena vida).
Note from the author and director
In these post-pandemic times — with the world turned upside down, wars looming (both visible and invisible), and storms with their own names sweeping through cities — Una buena vida is an ode to the human stories that unfold within difficult circumstances, reminding us of the beauty of being alive.
The play engages with the Greek myth of Procne and Philomela, drawing on the coincidence of the storm (named Filomena) that blanketed Madrid in white.
We transform the tragic heart of the myth to make a plea for life — reclaiming the precious, primal instinct that emerges in human beings at critical moments: in the face of death, danger and separation.
Love, humour and hope in times of blackouts, pandemics and storms.
An ode to intimacy and tenderness in the pursuit of living a good life (Una buena vida).
Carolina África
Carolina África
Carolina África, Jorge Kent and Ahimsa
Bengoa Vázquez
Rodrigo Ortega
Pilar Calvo
David Martínez
Laura Cortón
Centro Dramático Nacional, La Belloch Teatro, Lo Llano and TIDI
(Madrid 1980) She is a theatre and film director, playwright, screenwriter, actress and co-founding producer of La Belloch Teatro S.L. Among her most notable stage works—written and directed by her—are Verano en diciembre, El cuaderno de Pitágoras, Vientos de levante and Otoño en abril.
In October 2024, she made her debut as a film director at the Seminci Festival with her first feature Verano en diciembre, an adaptation of her stage play of the same name, which went on to earn a nomination for the 2025 Goya Awards.
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Her texts have been published by various publishers and staged at major venues including the Centro Dramático Nacional and Teatro Español, and have toured in Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Mexico and Ecuador. Her work has also been produced and translated in the UK (Teatro Cervantes) and Italy (Teatro Nazionale di Genova). As a screenwriter, she has contributed to La matemática del espejo and Mujeres en la dos for Spanish national broadcaster TVE.
She has adapted several works for the Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico (CNTC), including El desdén con el desdén and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as well as Mañanas de abril y mayo for Teatro Fernán Gómez.
She has collaborated on stage direction for Antonio Najarro’s ballet La Argentina en París and directed Equus by Peter Shaffer for Okapi Producciones. As an educator, she has led acting and playwriting seminars in cities across Spain, Uruguay, Italy, Equatorial Guinea and Mexico.
As a film and television actress, she has appeared in Casi 40 and Vivir es fácil con los ojos cerrados (directed by David Trueba), as well as Carmen y Lola (with Arantxa Echevarría). Her TV credits include Derecho a soñar, Ella es tu padre, ¿Qué fue de Jorge Sanz?, Centro Médico and El secreto de Puente Viejo.
She has received numerous awards, including the 2012 National Calderón de la Barca Prize, the 2021 Barahona de Soto Prize, the 2023 Platta Prize (runner-up) and the 2024 Francisco Nieva First Prize for Playwriting, and has been a finalist at the Max Awards on several occasions.
