The Talisman

As one of Nestroy's masterpieces and most frequently performed plays, Der Talisman (The Talisman) uses brilliant comedy and sharp-tongued dialogue to critique the conditions of his time.

"Progress has a tendency to appear much greater than it really is."
Nestroy

With his outstanding linguistic artistry, Nestroy takes a razor-sharp look at the themes of exclusion, opportunism, and (everyday) racism—issues that are just as relevant today as they were in 1840 when the play premiered, with Nestroy himself playing the red-haired outsider Titus Feuerfuchs and his struggle for recognition. Welcome to a world where happiness depends more on appearances than on substance: everyone here has the same opportunities, almost everyone...

"But do you understand, Tirol, that I left the country,
because too many people ask me if I can speak German?
Because people ask me where my roots are.
And then they don't believe me when I say they're in the Ötztal valley."
Nenda Neururer: Mixed Feelings, 2021

Grotesque, satirical, and bitterly angry: Nenda and musician Bernhard Neumaier will work together to transfer Nestroy's biting spirit into the present day in an original musical way. And with Dominique Schnizer, a proven Nestroy specialist, directing for the first time in Innsbruck. Since 2017, the Austrian director has been devoting himself with great respect to his favorite poet, carefully and sensitively bringing the original into the present day with tempo, pointed wit, and profundity—and vice versa.