Following the success of his first edition as director – with Theatre is Body – Body is Poetry, an homage to Ronconi’s legendary 1975 Biennale – Willem Dafoe returns to Venice with the 54th International Theatre Festival, running from 7 to 21 June 2026.
The title chosen for this edition is ALTER NATIVE: not a single word, but a tension between two poles. Alter as transformation, as otherness; native as root, as culture of origin. An invitation to rediscover theatre where it still beats in its most authentic form – far from Western institutional and commercial circuits, in the cracks where, as Dafoe puts it, “truly unique art resides, not in smoothness.”
The 2026 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement goes to director and playwright Emma Dante, a powerful and unmistakable voice in Italian theatre, whose work brings her native Sicily to the stage with courage and emotional urgency. For Biennale Teatro she will present a new creation: I fantasmi di Basile, inspired by the fairy tales of Giambattista Basile’s Lo cunto de li cunti.
The Silver Lion is awarded to young Greek-Albanian director Mario Banushi, born in 1998 and already a leading figure on the European scene. His Romance Familiare – a trilogy comprising Ragada, Goodbye Lindita and Taverna Miresia – will be staged in its entirety for the first time, in co-production with the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.
The programme spans an extraordinarily wide geographical and cultural horizon: from Sharmila Biswas’s India with Mischief Dance, a subtle reinvention of classical Odissi dance, to the Indonesian collective Bumi Purnati with two works drawn from late 19th-century legends; from Rwanda’s Dorcy Rugamba with HEWA RWANDA, a deeply moving musical theatre tribute to the victims of the Tutsi genocide, to Japan’s Satoshi Miyagi with a Mugen-Noh Othello.
Also featured: Greece with the outdoor concert-performance Cries at the Teatro Verde on the Island of San Giorgio, Samoan director Lemi Ponifasio with Star Returning: Venice, and a special event with the extraordinary Beninese singer Angélique Kidjo.
Returning to the festival are two Italian artists: Davide Iodice with Promemoria, a project created with the residents of Venice’s San Giobbe care home, and Silvia Costa with the definitive version of Jacopo Giacomoni’s Tacet. A dedicated exhibition celebrating Robert Wilson will be on display in the Sala delle Colonne, curated from the Biennale’s own archive.
An essential and vital part of the festival, Biennale College Teatro returns with performances by students from three leading Italian theatre schools – Paolo Grassi in Milan, Teatro Stabile del Veneto and Teatro Nazionale di Napoli. New this year is a College for actors and performers under 30 – 11 artists selected through an open international call – with a month-long programme led in rotation by Simon McBurney, Silvia Costa, Evangelia and Mary Randou, and Willem Dafoe himself. The dramaturgy course with Fabrizio Sinisi and the theatre criticism workshop with Roberta Ferraresi and Massimo Milella also continue.