J. N. Nestroy: Talisman

The wig is an object of truly magical power, providing its wearer Tito with an unexpected social rise, but at the same time triggering a carousel of confusion and misunderstanding that can have disastrous consequences. Nestroy's comedy Talisman will remind you that people are nothing more than mere fools of fate. The main role is played by Jiří Langmajer, Daniela Kolářová, Nadia Konvalinková and Tereza Bebarová. Dramatist, actor and singer, the leading representative and perfecter of the Viennese folk theatre, Johann Nepomuk Nestroy (1801-1862) is rightly regarded as the key figure of the German-language merrymaking. He based his plays - eighty-three in all - on improvisation, among other reasons of censorship, and their satirical edge did not spare the socio-political conditions of the Austrian Biedermeier, guarded by the Metternich regime. With the same zeal, and at the same time with an excellent ability to observe the details of life, he portrayed the distorted characters, especially in the folk and bourgeois strata. In the satirical farce Talisman, everything is based on prejudice against redness.