Mario Banushi, recipient of the Silver Lion at the 2026 Venice Theatre Biennale, is celebrated by director Willem Dafoe for a theatre that is intimate, rooted in Balkan culture, and sharply attuned to contemporary contradictions. Born in Albania in 1998 and raised in Greece, he studied Dramatic Arts at the Athens Conservatory. The Festival will present for the first time his complete trilogy Romance Familiare, produced with the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain. The first chapter, as well as Banushi’s directorial debut Ragada, was created inside a private home during the pandemic and explores motherhood through the metaphor of a “fracture,” the dark, painful threshold of birth. The second work, Goodbye, Lindita (2023), dedicated to his maternal grandmother, is a visual meditation on slowness and tenderness, marked by expressionistic contrasts of light and shadow. The trilogy concludes with Taverna Miresia – Mario, Bella, Anastasia (2023), a return to the abandoned family tavern in Tirana. Through objects treated as living presences, music, and ritual gestures, Banushi evokes memory, loss, and the remnants of a life left behind.

Peter Brook wrote that a director is always an “impostor,” a guide in the night who has no choice but to discover the path along the way. How much do you identify with this idea? What emotions or deeper reflections accompany your choices when you begin working on a new production?
Every new creation is like diving into unknown waters. You think you know what you want to talk about, and sometimes you feel confident, until rehearsals come and reveal something new to you. What I love most about art, as a viewer, is that you can see your own story in every work. No matter what the director says, if I see something, then that something is true. Often, the starting point and the reason you begin a project are important, but that doesn’t mean you will end up where you first intended. Just like in life, no matter how many plans you make, things never turn out exactly the way you imagined them.

What were the steps that led you from the first experimental presentation of Ragada, staged in private homes in Athens during the lockdown, to your debut on the stage of the National Theatre of Greece in 2023 with Goodbye Lindita?
The challenge for me was how, after performing in a house for only 20 people, I could create something equally intimate and familiar in a theatre, where everything feels more structured lights, sets, and so on. I try to reduce the distance (symbolically) between the performers and the audience.

Lighting and set design have always played an important role in your productions. How do these elements emerge in your creative process? Specifically for lighting, at what stage of production do you work on it? Is the reference to Caravaggio an initial inspiration or a final result?
For me, light in my work is as important as the text is for another director. Through light, you can tell a whole story. That’s why I work with light from the very first day of rehearsal, even using very simple, handmade solutions, which are often the most charming. Caravaggio is definitely a reference for me. He is a painter who influences me through his colors, his use of light, and the physicality of his figures.

At the Venice Biennale, we will see the Romance Familiare trilogy, a landscape of memory that transforms intimate experiences into universal poetry. How did you construct this trilogy, and what does it mean for you to present the three works together?
This is the first time I will present the entire trilogy together, and I’m really looking forward to it. For me, this trilogy forms a cycle: the mother, the stepmother, and the father. What is most beautiful is that I reveal the crack. After four years, I bring back to life a work that marks the beginning of my journey as a creator. It feels emotional to speak so personally in a place as beautiful and fairytale-like as Venice, it feels like a dream. Ragada will be presented in a real house in Venice, while Goodbye Lindita and Taverna Miresia – Mario, Bella, Anastasia will be presented in theatres.

Looking beyond Romance Familiare, what directions or future projects do you feel drawn to explore?
I am open to whatever comes next. I am deeply focused on the new work I am preparing for next year, and I’m really excited about it. At the same time, photography is another field I want to focus on. I want to organize my first photography exhibition. I have a lot of material that I’m eager to share with the world many stories, told in a different way.

One of your early works was a short film. What differences do you perceive between theatre and cinema?
Yes, my first work is Pranvera, which is also a short film. I strongly believe it influenced the way I later approached theatre. Many times, even in practical terms, I work as if I am making a film, from rehearsals to the way we structure everything. They are very different fields, but it’s creatively interesting to see how, as a creator, you can take elements from both and play with them.

Which authors do you consider your mentors or fundamental influences?
My greatest mentor is my family. They taught me to respect others and to act with honesty, and this is also my rule in my work. Let’s try to change the landscape by creating a healthier environment and a sense of safety during rehearsals. For me, this is a strong starting point for creating something meaningful. Of course, there are many artists who influence the way I see things. Theodoros Terzopoulos is someone I have been in dialogue with in recent years. I listen to him speak about life and art, and I am inspired above all, by his integrity.

Featured image: Mario Banushi © Andreas Simopoulos for Onassis Stegi