Mozambique’s Marco Mendonça wins prestigious theatre revelation award in Portugal

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Mozambique’s Marco Mendonça wins prestigious theatre revelation award in Portugal

12:17 CAT | 15 Sep 2025

File photo: Rádio Renascença

Mozambican actor and playwright Marco Mendonça is the winner of the D. Maria II National Theatre (TNDM) Ageas Revelation Award, in Portugal.

Mendonça told Lusa news agency this Friday that being awarded the prize was “a glorious compliment, and overwhelming news in many ways”.

The winner of the award was announced in a small ceremony held at the Teatro Variedades, moments before the premiere of “O Nariz de Cleópatra, pois claro!”, a play directed by Cristina Carvalhal and co-produced by her company, Causas Comuns, and the TNDM.

The actor, playwright and director sees the award “as a guarantee that there are people paying attention” and that “there is recognition” of his work, as well as that of those who have worked with him on his projects.

“It’s important to know that there are groups of people [like that] – peers, above all. That’s also very important; they pay attention to artists, to people who create and defy the odds,” Mendonça explained.

Born in Mozambique in 1995 and residing in Lisbon since 2007, Marco Mendonça also highlighted the jury that elected him, whose composition includes people he greatly respects and admires, and who, in a way “also defied the odds of success when they started out”.

With a degree in Theatre, specializing in acting, from the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema, Marco Mendonça began working professionally in 2014 with the company Os Possessos.

In 2015, when “Tiago Rodrigues was taking his first steps as artistic director of D. Maria II [since 2014],” Mendonça was offered an internship at the Nacional, alongside other creators such as João Pedro Vaz, Faustin Linyekula, Paula Diogo, Catarina Requeijo, and the company Formiga Atómica.

With João Pedro Leal and Eduardo Molina, Marco Mendonça created “Parlamento Elefante”, a project that won the 2019 Amélia Rey Colaço Grant, and “Cordyceps” (2021), a play supported by the Rede 5 Sentidos, both TNDM initiatives.

In 2015, he performed in the play “Os eventos” by David Greig, directed by António Simão, for Artistas Unidos, at the former Teatro da Politécnica. Seven years later, he appeared in “Taco a Taco” by Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair, directed by Pedro Carraca.

“Blackface” (2023) is the actor’s first original creation, followed by “Reparations Baby!”, which premiered last June. Both works address issues “that deserve to be discussed, such as racism or historical reparations”, Mendonça has said.

“These aren’t ideas that arise from a purely imaginative or romantic space, or whatever you want to call it. They’re things I create based largely on the reality I’ve lived and the reality that people close to me also live,” he emphasized.

Regarding his own creations, Marco Mendonça says they arise “from a great sense of urgency, from a very strong need to bring to the forefront issues” that he feels “deserve to be discussed”.

“These issues generate a lot of polarization when they’re exposed in the media, in a public context,” and the actor understands this as “polarization [that] often derails the dialogue before it can even begin”.

In addition to his work in film and television with Portuguese creators, Marco Mendonça is also part of the cast of Tiago Rodrigues’ play “Catarina e a Beleza de Matar Fascistas”, which has been touring internationally since 2020.

Marco Mendonça emphasized the “special significance” of receiving this award, considering it “one of those ‘full circle’ moments”, as it was exactly ten years ago that he joined the D. Maria II Palace as an intern.

“At the time when Tiago Rodrigues was beginning his journey as artistic director,” Marco Mendonça emphasized, “he has much to thank him” for “granting me this great gateway into the job market”, recalling that, in that very first season, “he had the opportunity to work with incredible people and projects”.

The actor also thanked everyone he has encountered over these ten years. “They taught me so much and continue to teach me so much,” he says.

When asked what he plans to do with the €5,000 prize, Marco Mendonça replied that he will “save it”.

“I’m going to save money, because, with the precariousness of this environment, it’s necessary.”

When asked by Lusa if he has any projects of his own for the immediate future, Mendonça said he has “ideas”, but they are currently only “in the research phase, still very embryonic”.