I’m a multilingual playwright and storyteller, rooted in Slovenian theatre and active across the German- and English-speaking world. My work explores the clash of politics, memory, and identity—often with a bang, and sometimes with a song.

I write about what we laugh at and what we don’t dare say out loud, believing these reveal the deepest truths about society. From sunbathing prophets to ghosts of forgotten empires, my plays embrace rebellion, absurdity, and unexpected moments of joy.

My work has been performed across Europe, in collaboration with ensembles, translators, and artists who believe in theatre as a space for dialogue, disruption, and defiance.

My plays are about people who think too much, dream too loudly, are right too early – or simply find themselves onstage at the wrong time.

They deal with truths no one wants to hear. With systems that would rather let people die than change. With villages that resist empires. With bodies that refuse to bend. With humor as a weapon and language as dynamite.

I’m drawn to historical figures who fell through the cracks, to collective absurdities, and the small fires smoldering just beneath the surface. I believe in theater as a space where one is allowed to fail with dignity – and rise again with conviction.

What do my texts need? Actors with hunger. Directors with an appetite for risk. An audience that doesn’t just consume, but thinks along – or at least laughs along.

And a stage that’s more than a backdrop. A space where we can tell the world’s story all over again – this time, together.

Selected Works for the Stage

THE GREAT BLACK HOPE

Jack Johnson and the Fight Against a White World

America. Turn of the century. The world is white. And so is the boxing ring. Until one man steps in and turns everything upside down: Jack Johnson – Black, powerful, proud – and absolutely unwilling to duck.

Jack fought his way from the bottom to the top. He didn’t just box – he dazzled. In the ring and on the street. In a tuxedo, with a white girlfriend on his arm and a gold tooth in his grin. He drove cars, wore hats, talked back to white men – and became a two-legged threat.

Because his greatest scandal wasn’t his talent – it was his freedom. Jack Johnson was living proof that America’s racist worldview was a house of cards. And he punched at the walls until they started to shake.

This play tells his story with speed, wit, and force. Somewhere between showdown and show business, courtrooms and cabaret, between jazz, jabs, and justice. It’s a biopic, a satire, and a revolt all at once – a night at the theater like a 14-round fight: brutal, poetic, funny, and absolutely necessary.

A piece about fury, dignity – and the noise a Black man can make when he refuses to stay quiet.

For stages that aren’t afraid of sweat, stance, and history. And for ensembles ready to fight – for visibility, for truth, and for every damn punchline.

THE EMPEROR IS COMING

A Village State Affair in Three Acts and Ten Shots of Schnapps.

Imagine this: a telegram arrives. The Emperor of Abyssinia is coming to visit. The village of Bohinj. In Slovenia. In 1935. – Of course, it’s a mistake. Or a joke. Or both. But no one wants to notice.

The mayor loses his mind, the priest blesses everything in sight, the brass band rehearses day and night, and some guy named Tonček from the next village decides to paint himself black and personally step off the train as “the Emperor.”

What unfolds is a deliciously absurd revue of patriotic delusion, masculine vanity, and the astonishing ability of rural communities to craft a full-blown state affair out of complete cluelessness.

The language is hearty, the scenes move briskly from village pub to town hall to imperial welcoming committee. The piece doesn’t mock the village – it mocks the system that would rather believe in its own staging than face reality.

A biting political comedy with heart, wit, and a tuba. And a tribute to theater itself – because sometimes, all it takes is a costume rack, a little bluffing, and one telegram to rearrange the world.

For large ensembles with playfulness, rhythm, and a love for the poetry of the provincial. Perfect for open-air venues, municipal theaters, or festivals with a taste for sharp-witted farce.

THE SHADOWS OF TRUTH

Ignaz Semmelweis

Welcome to Vienna. Mid-19th century. Coffeehouse culture, waltzes, medical progress. And in the maternity ward? Death.

Young women arrive healthy to give birth – and die just days later in agony from childbed fever. No one knows why. No one asks. Except one man: Ignaz Semmelweis, a stubborn young doctor with a thick accent, little patience, and a fatal passion for the truth.

He makes a discovery that seems obvious today: washing hands saves lives. But in 19th-century Vienna, that idea means blasphemy, career suicide, madness. What follows is a fierce battle against arrogance, rituals, obsession with titles – and a medical elite that would rather let mothers die than dirty its hands with soap.

The play places Semmelweis at the heart of a sprawling system determined to protect itself – even from insight. He argues, despairs, yells, breaks down. And still holds on to his truth.

A drama rooted in history, yet searingly relevant today: about power, ignorance, and what happens when someone is right too soon.

For stages that seek more than monuments. A play about bodies, battles – and one burning question that still remains:

How much truth can a system take?

THE GREAT OUTRAGE

A Sun Worshipper, a Spa Town, and a Thermal Uprising.

Arnold Rikli doesn’t believe in pills. He believes in light. In air. In water. And in the idea that the only way to stay healthy is to run naked through the mountains and willingly plunge into icy tubs every morning.

In the respectable town of Bled, circa 19th century, this doesn’t exactly go down well. When Rikli opens his “Institute for Natural Healing” – complete with barefoot sunbathing, vegetarian diets, and a strict early-rise regime – the locals are caught somewhere between amusement, outrage, and sunstroke.

But Rikli attracts patients like moths to a flame: desperate city dwellers, overwhelmed husbands, hysterical hypochondriacs – they all come seeking healing. Or at least to lose a little weight.

This play is musical, satire, philosophy, and slapstick all rolled into one. Somewhere between bathrobe and bureaucracy, steam bed and moral sermon, unfolds a strange, comic, and touching battle: for health, for recognition – and for the right to rebel against the world wearing nothing but a towel.

A theatrical piece about bodies and capitalism, the art of breathing, and the tyranny of self-discipline. And about one man who’d rather be sunburned than system-compliant.

For ensembles craving musical playfulness, physical freedom, and delightfully pointed madness. Open to interpretation – with live music, dance, or both.

THE VILLAGE RISES

A Village. A Villa. A "No" That Makes History.

Begunje – a place with a villa no one cared about. Until someone decided to sell it. And suddenly: Everyone. Needs. That. Villa.

What follows isn’t a proper protest, nor a clean-cut revolution. It’s a full-blown uprising – made of improvisation, irony, and institutional madness. The local council meets, the rumor mill spins, old grudges bubble up, and somewhere in the middle stands a village community determined not to be patronized. Even if it means putting on a play. Or two.

This piece tells, with warmth and wit, a story of grassroots empowerment in the tightest of spaces. Of ordinary people who refuse to be taken for fools. Of creative resistance. Of the power of collective performance. And of how far you sometimes have to go to be heard – especially when no one is listening.

A tribute to the village, to defiance, to theatre – and to all those who don’t stay silent just because they speak more quietly.

Ideal for ensembles with local roots and political humor. Can be staged big or small – but never with small impact.

Are you interested in staging one of my plays? Looking for a writer to collaborate on a new project or premiere?

Then feel free to get in touch.

I’m happy to receive inquiries from directors, theaters, ensembles, publishers, presenters, cultural institutions, and anyone who sees theater as a living space for thought, debate, and laughter.

borut.marter@gmail.com

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