The information was reported today by the management board of the theater, following the publication in the Diário da República on Wednesday of the announcement for the amendment of the public tender for the “design-construction for the remodeling of the rotating stage system and the stage mechanics framework,” valued at 1.6 million euros with an execution period of 175 days.
In November 2024, the artistic director of the national theater, Pedro Penim, indicated “the first quarter of 2026” as the likely reopening period after the completion of all works under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), which started in 2023.
Now, when questioned about whether the launch of this tender threatens the theater’s reopening, the management board stated in writing that this work “does not jeopardize the PRR’s target for the completion of the intervention, set for the end of June 2026.”
“The reopening of the Theatre to the public will take place in 2026, following the completion of the works, with a date to be announced shortly,” the theater’s management board added.
Regarding the public tender for the “remodeling of the rotating stage system and the stage mechanics framework” in the Sala Garrett, the management board of D. Maria II considers it “an urgent intervention, whose necessity was identified during the drafting of the Requalification Project” for the theater.
According to the administration, it was not possible to include the work, which “will improve the technical and artistic conditions of the main hall of this Theater,” in the original Requalification Project due to insufficient funding for the theater.
“Having identified this need with the authorities, D. Maria II benefited in May 2025 from additional funding, resulting from the reallocation of PRR funds, which enabled the advancement of this important intervention,” the D. Maria II administration emphasized.
For this entity, the “rehabilitation of the rotating stage system, a resource with unique characteristics in the national and European landscape, will enhance the technical capabilities of this hall and consequently provide artists working at D. Maria II with better artistic solutions.”
Simultaneously, the work “will ensure better working conditions on and beneath the stage of Sala Garrett.”
“The intervention in the stage mechanics framework will increase the safety, reliability, and precision in the control of stage machinery, reducing the risk of failures and also allowing the integration of automated systems,” the theater administration noted.
The administration of D. Maria II further mentioned that the tender for this project was launched in August and had to be repeated “for technical reasons.”
The National Theatre D. Maria II has been undergoing requalification works since the beginning of 2023 as part of the PRR.
Initially, the reopening was projected for 2024. In November 2023, it was postponed for the first time to early 2025.
In July 2024, a statement from the management board announced that due to delays in the project, the theater’s reopening was postponed by a year, now scheduled for early 2026.
