The Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, in Lisbon, was closed for three years for interior renovation, a period during which it developed a nationwide project called Odisseia Nacional. This journey led the institution to spread across the country, working with municipal theaters, local authorities, schools, companies, and communities in over 100 municipalities, both on the mainland and the islands. More than 280 projects were developed and approximately 200,000 people were involved.
Rui Catarino, president of the theater's Board of Directors, stated that the main learning from these three years was realizing that a national theater is much larger than the building where it is housed. For decades, D. Maria II was associated with Rossio Square, but this period demonstrated that the institution's mission is not confined to a performance venue, but rather to the people and communities it serves. The experience also showed that working without a home is logistically heavy and difficult, having revealed more clearly what a home is for and everything a National Theater is obligated to do beyond it.
The theater's operation has been rethought, transitioning from a building-centered organization to a network-based organization. Projects are no longer replicas of something conceived in Lisbon, but rather built in response to the country's diversity, with sharing of information, resources, and decision-making capacity. The programming also changed, now intending to focus on longer runs of shows, especially in the Sala Garrett, instead of hyper-rotation.
The theater reopened on September 18, but Rui Catarino guarantees it will not be a return to the starting point. Programs like ATOS, Boca Aberta, PANOS, or Próxima Cena continue to work with municipalities and communities throughout the territory. The goal is to move from an extraordinary scale to more continued and deeper relationships, helping to create local capacity that persists without permanently depending on the D. Maria II's presence. The ambition is to have a strong home at Rossio and an institution with structural relationships across the country.
