The dramatic oeuvre of Zofka Kveder (1878–1926), the first professional Slovenian woman writer, is more modest in scope than her prose, yet equally radical in content. Through her plays, she addressed themes that had not previously found literary expression within the Slovenian cultural context. In Slovenka (The Slovenian Woman), Slovenia's first women's magazine, she published a number of one-act plays as well as the four-act drama Pravica do življenja (The Right to Life, 1901). These works were later published together in book form under the collective title Ljubezen (Love). Her next major dramatic work, Amerikanci (The Americans), which explores the theme of emigration, was published by the Slovenska matica in 1908.
V prvem desetletju 20. stoletja so bila njena dramska besedila tudi štirikrat uprizorjena: Love v praškem gledališču Urania (1904) in naslednje leto v beograjskem Narodnem gledališču, Foreign Eyes at the central theatre house in Zagreb (1905) and Egoism at the Ljubljana Provincial Theatre (1906). She also prepared three translations of Czech plays for the latter. Two of them have been preserved in the archives of the Drama Society in her manuscript and are also available on our website (Gabriela Preissová: The Slave's Wife, Josef Štolba: Morska deklica).
In addition to manuscripts, magazine publications, book editions, and materials documenting stage productions, the exhibition also presents a selection of the extensive scholarly literature on Zofka Kveder, as well as several later editions of her works. Among the forty authors represented in the prestigious series Zbrana dela slovenskih pesnikov in pisateljev (Collected Works of Slovenian Poets and Writers), edited by Katja Mihurko, Zofka Kveder is the only woman writer included.
The exhibition materials were kindly provided by the Ljubljana City Library – Slavic Library, the City Museum of Ljubljana, the Museum of Theatre Arts of Serbia, the National Institute for Culture, the Arts and Theatre Institute, and the Department for the History of Croatian Theatre, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. We are grateful to these institutions for their generous assistance in preparing the exhibition.
Guided Tour of the Exhibition:
– Saturday, 20 June 2026, at 8:00 p.m.
The exhibition opened on Tuesday, 2 June 2026, at 7:00 p.m.
Highlights from the exhibition opening. Photo: SLOGI.
From the media (in Slovenian)
Razstava del Zofke Kveder, Dobro jutro, 1. program Televizije Slovenija, 22. 6. 2026
V jubilejnem letu Zofke Kveder se spominjamo tudi njenega prispevka h gledališču, MMC RTV SLO, 2. 6. 2026
Razstava o gledališkem delu Zofke Kveder, Večer, 2. 6. 2026
Zofka Kveder and the Theatre, SiGledal, 2. 6. 2026
V Slogiju razstava o gledališkem udejstvovanju Zofke Kveder, STA, 2. 6. 2026
ZOFKA KVEDER AND THE THEATRE
An Exhibition Marking the 100th Anniversary of Her Death
Manuscripts, Book Editions, Performances, and Reception
Slovenian Theatre Institute, First-Floor Exhibition Hall
The exhibition is open from 2 June to 23 September 2026, Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Exhibition Curator: Katarina Kocijančič
Co-curator: Dr. Katja Mihurko
Exhibition Design: Andrej Ovsec
Project Coordinator: Mihael Čepeljnik
