Martin Algus

Martin Algus (born 25 December 1973) is a playwright, prose writer, screenwriter, dramaturge, translator and actor.

He was born and attended school in Jõgeva and studied acting at Viljandi Cultural College. He has been an actor and playwright at the Ugala Theatre, a copywriter, later a freelancer.

The beginning of Algus’ literary creative path features original plays and translations of plays for which he was awarded the Aleksander Kurtna Translator’s Award by the Dramatic Art Endowment of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia in 2005. From among the translated plays, Terrorism by Vladimir and Oleg Presnyakov, The Yalta Game by Brian Friel and Mensch Meier by Franz Xaver Kroetz staged in 2004. His original plays have also received awards; for example, Janu (2007) won the first place in the Estonian Theatre Agency’s playwriting competition and the prize of the Drama Festival (2009). The youth play Ise oled! (‘You Are!’, 2007) won the second place. Postmodernsed leibkonnad (‘Postmodern Households’), which views different family models in the present-day world, won the first place in the same playwriting competition in 2009. Väävelmagnooliad (‘Sulphur Magnolias’, 2013), which deals with childhood traumas and the increasingly relevant theme of care for aging family members, received the second place and also the Estonian Theatre Union’s original dramaturgy award in 2015. Kontakt (‘Contact’, published as a book in 2012) views the encounters of lonely people with different life paths and destinies in the capitals of the Nordic countries. It won the first place in the New Baltic Drama playwriting competition in 2011 and the Literature Endowment Annual Award in 2013.

The themes of Algus’ early plays and prose works are mostly in the present-day world; he is interested in social problems. His first novel Midagi tõelist (‘Something Real’, 2018), which received the Literature Endowment Annual Award for prose (2019) and the Eduard Vilde Prize in Literature (2019), entwines the lives of two men, a porn addict and someone who has just been released from prison, amid the temptations and pitfalls of the internet, the loneliness and greed of the modern world. On the other hand, the short prose collection Tagamaa (‘Hinterland’, 2020) highlights the people and scenery of Estonia’s periphery in a hundred-year perspective from Estonia gaining independent statehood to the present. The radio play Lõvi (‘Lion’), based on the short story Gandhi, won the Best European Drama and the BBC Audio Drama Award (2022). The cinematic story in which a screenwriter’s hand can be felt is about a lion who breaks loose and about people’s reactions to this situation. “Lõvi” is set in Estonia after the restoration of independence in the early 1990s.

To larger audiences, Algus is primarily known as a scriptwriter of films and TV series. He made his debut in this field in 2008 with the feature film Soovide puu (‘The Wish Tree’, director Liina Paakspuu), which was followed by a number of feature films, such as Sangarid (‘The Dissidents’, 2017, director Jaak Kilmi), Talve (‘Winter’, 2019) and Soo (‘The Bog’, 2021, both based on the works of Oskar Luts and directed by Ergo Kuld) and Elu ja armastus (‘Life and Love’, 2024, directed by Helen Takkin) based on the novel by A. H. Tammsaare. Algus has written the scripts for the TV series Ühikarotid (‘Dormitory Rats’, 2010), Kalevipojad (2011), which depicts the life of Estonian builders in Finland, Lahutus Eesti moodi (‘Divorce Estonian Style’, 2019), which was awarded the title of best TV series at the Estonian Film and TV Awards in 2020, Miks mitte? (‘Why Not?’), which won the title of the best television screenwriter in 2019, and Valguses ja varjus (‘In Light and Shadow’, 2020). The director of all the mentioned series is Ergo Kuld.

Algus’ first poetry collection Paranemine (‘Healing’ 2021) is focussed on a family story and coping with the grief caused by the loss of a loved one.

Algus has received the Oskar Luts Humour Prize (2016).

A. K. (Translated by I. A.)

Books in Estonian

Novels
Midagi tõelist. Tallinn: Varrak, 2018, 177 lk

Short prose
Tagamaa. Tallinn: Varrak, 2020, 196 lk

Poetry
Paranemine. Tallinn: Puänt, 2021, 92 lk

Plays
Õitseng. Tallinn: Eesti Draamateater, 2011, 84 lk
Kontakt. Tallinn: Eesti Draamateater, 2012, 96 lk