About the work
Homo faber is a 1957 novel by the Swiss writer Max Frisch, published by Suhrkamp. For Staatsschauspiel Dresden, director Marcel Kohler developed a stage version that extends the material through the use of artificial intelligence; it premiered on 7 February 2026.
Plot
Engineer Walter Faber sees himself as a rational technician, immune to chance and fate. After an emergency landing in the desert and a sea voyage, he falls for the young Sabeth without initially realising she is his own daughter. Her death after an accident in Greece fundamentally challenges Faber's belief in control and technology.
Cultural significance
Homo faber is among the most widely read works of postwar Swiss literature and a fixture of the school curriculum in German-speaking countries. Marcel Kohler's Dresden stage version, Robo Faber, picks up on the title character's faith in technology by having Faber design a digital afterlife for himself through a large-language-model avatar, updating the novel's questions about technology, fate and mortality for the present.