der Talisman

In the organizer's words:

Nestroy's "Talisman" is a highly comic and bitterly wicked social comedy about the poison of prejudice. Titus Feuerfuchs, a red-haired vagabond who has "exchanged his home for the wide world", is looking for work. At first in vain, because prejudice outweighs compassion for someone who is at the bottom. Titus' fiery red mop of hair arouses considerable antipathy among his fellow men. Only Salome, another red-haired outsider, has any sympathy for the poor guy. He finds happiness when he saves the hairdresser Monsieur Marquis from an accident. As a token of gratitude, he is given a jet-black wig as a talisman. Within a very short space of time, Titus uses his sharp wit and fluid identities to masterfully cheat his way to the top of society through the most absurd mix-ups.

The unfortunately long-lasting patterns of exclusion are taken to such extremes here that they are completely absurd. Johann Nepomuk Nestroy (1801-1862), one of the inventors of the Viennese folk play and a theater man through and through - he was a singer, actor, theater director and poet - chooses a prop as the talisman and driver of the plot: a wig. Wigs of all kinds play a key role here, alongside unfortunate and fortunate coincidences.

Director Bastian Kraft recently brought Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice" to the Gaußstraße stage with a female ensemble. With "The Talisman", he is now staging a "farce with song in three acts", which is both exhilarating and terrifyingly timeless and takes unerring and aggressive aim at our present day.