The article examines the role of nonhuman actors in 20th- and 21st-century Slovenian drama. It traces how their function shifts from symbolic figures to autonomous agents within dramatic action. The discussion is framed by the contemporary “nonhuman turn”, which shifts scholarly focus away from an exclusively human-centred worldview and towards animals, environments and material processes. Through a comparative reading of three plays – Dane Zajc’s Children of the River, Gregor Strniša’s The Dryad and Neža Lučka Peterlin’s The Lamb – the author demonstrates how theatre gradually redefines the relationship between humans and nature. In Zajc’s play, nonhuman figures embody an unattainable ideal of primordial unity, reflecting existential loss and nihilism. In Strniša’s drama, the titular tree spirit, the Dryad, functions as a catalyst, revealing the clash between the materialistic world and the transcendent dimension of imagination. Peterlin’s contemporary play moves further by dismantling anthropocentrism: animals and natural processes appear as independent agents rather than metaphors for human experience. The article concludes that Slovenian drama evolves from using nature as a symbolic background to recognising nonhuman entities as co- creators of dramatic reality, opening new possibilities for ecological and theatrical thinking.
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