The Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, in Lisbon, reopens between June 22nd and July 25th, with a program entitled “Prologue”, resuming normal activity on September 18th, with the opening of the 2026/2027 season, the institution announced this Thursday, December 4th.
Closed since December 31, 2022, for a “deep intervention” that covers the requalification, restoration and renovation of several areas of the building, D. Maria II (TNDM) will return to activity after works worth “9.8 million euros”, an investment made within the scope of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), reads the statement.
Guided tours, workshops, debates, meetings, artistic experiences and mediation actions are included in the “Prologue”, to be held from June 22nd to July 25th, which the artistic director of TNDM, Pedro Penim, cited in the statement, defines as “a period of transition and listening that will allow us to rediscover the building, test ways of welcoming and prepare for our return home”.
A “work of proximity with the neighboring community, the teams, the artists, the partners, the schools, with the public of the city and the country”, which, adds Pedro Penim, aims to be “the rehearsal of the reunion and the anticipatory moment” of the reopening of the building in Rossio, in September, after almost three years, since the closure for requalification works, at the end of December 2022.
From June 22nd to July 25th, guided tours, workshops, meetings, artistic experiences and mediation actions will take place, in addition to the 2026 edition of Cenários, the thought event of D. Maria II, scheduled for June 25th and 26th. The complete program for “Prologue” will be announced soon, the theater’s statement added.
“We intend for this to be a period of transition and listening, which will allow us to rediscover the building, test ways of welcoming and prepare for the return home, in close work with the neighboring community, teams, artists, partners, schools and the public of the city and the country”, says the theater’s artistic director, describing “Prologue” as “the rehearsal of the reunion, the anticipatory moment in which D. Maria II comes back to breathe before reopening, in full, for everyone.”
For the president of the theater’s board of directors, the “rehabilitation of the rotating stage system and the stage mechanics electrical panel are of great importance” in the ongoing intervention, especially because the two actions should avoid “a new closure of the Sala Garrett in the future”.
“The rotating stage system is a resource with unique characteristics in the national panorama, which will reinforce the technical strengths of Sala Garrett and the artistic solutions available to creators”, guaranteeing “even better working conditions on the stage and sub-stages of this room”, adds Rui Catarino, quoted in the statement.
“D. Maria II will reopen to the public more capable of new scenic possibilities and improved technical efficiency and safety”, he concludes.
The program for the first semester of TNDM will be available on the theater’s website.
In November 2024, the artistic director of the national theater, Pedro Penim, pointed out “the first quarter of 2026” as the likely date for reopening D. Maria II, after the works started in 2023 under the PRR have been completed.
On October 23, the TNDM board of directors told Lusa that it had advanced with the launch of the tender for the remodeling of the rotating stage system, a project with a base value of 1.6 million euros and an execution period of 175 days, with completion of the works scheduled for the end of June 2026.
Asked whether the launch of the competition this year threatened the reopening of the theater, the board of directors said, in writing, that the work “does not call into question the fulfillment of the target established by the PRR for the completion of the intervention, set for the end of June 2026”.
Initially, the reopening of D. Maria II was scheduled for 2024. In November 2023 it was postponed, for the first time, to the beginning of 2025. In July 2024, the board of directors voted to postpone the reopening, projecting it for the beginning of 2026, citing delays in the works.