Willem Dafoe, the new Artistic Director of the Biennale Teatro, has announced the prestigious 2025 awards: the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to director and founder of the Wooster Group, Elizabeth LeCompte, and the Silver Lion to Swiss actress Ursina Lardi, performer and author of politically engaged theater.
The Biennale Teatro 2025 promises to be a unique occasion to celebrate two major figures in contemporary theater, both of whom have profoundly shaped the history of theater with deeply different yet equally revolutionary languages.
The awards will be presented during the 53rd International Theater Festival, taking place in Venice from May 31 to June 15, at the historic Ca’ Giustinian venue. Elizabeth LeCompte will receive the Golden Lion on Sunday, June 1, while Ursina Lardi will be honored with the Silver Lion on Saturday, June 14.
“It is a personal, individual story, yet at the same time, collective,” says Willem Dafoe in his reasoning for awarding Elizabeth LeCompte the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Founder of the Wooster Group in the 1970s, the American director has been a key figure in international experimental theater, profoundly influencing the cultural scene from the off-off-Broadway movement to the present day. Her work has integrated elements from music, dance, visual arts, and media, creating an innovative theatrical form that has been both celebrated and debated.
With over 50 productions to her name, LeCompte has seamlessly blended technology and acting, always in pursuit of creative independence.
Her productions, consistently marked by a meticulous attention to detail and a strong political and cultural imprint, have ranged from reinterpretations of classics – such as Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Brecht’s Mother – to the creation of original works through a collaborative process with her company. The Wooster Group, under LeCompte’s direction, will open the festival with the European premiere of Symphony of Rats by Richard Foreman, a production that marks the return of a major text nearly forty years after its first staging.
The Silver Lion is awarded to Ursina Lardi, “an actress with an always intense signature,” as Willem Dafoe highlights. Her career is defined by her ability to merge the personal and political dimensions in performances that challenge the contradictions of our time. From her beginnings with the Schaubühne company in Berlin to her collaboration with directors like Milo Rau, Lardi has brought complex characters to life, making every text both an artistic and political challenge.
“In her work,” the motivation reads, “the actress’s body becomes not only an absolute theatrical instrument but also a testimony and challenge: a truly political body.”
In every performance, from Maria Braun in Fassbinder’s The Marriage of Maria Braun to Rau’s Die Seherin (The Seer), Lardi has embodied the nuances of an era in crisis, while revealing possibilities for both artistic and human resistance.
Ursina Lardi will star at the festival in the Italian premiere of Die Seherin, a creation made in collaboration with Milo Rau, on June 12 and 13.
