Johann Nestroy

Johann Nepomuk Eduard Ambrosius Nestroy (German: [ˈnɛstrɔɪ̯]; 7 December 1801 – 25 May 1862) was a singer, actor and playwright in the popular Austrian tradition of the Biedermeier period and its immediate aftermath.

Nestroy's career as a playwright was an immediate success: his 1833 play Der böse Geist Lumpazivagabundus was a major hit.

Nestroy succeeded Ferdinand Raimund as the leading actor-dramatist on the Volkstheater, the Viennese commercial stage or 'people's theatre'.

Working at the time of conservative minister Klemens von Metternich, he had to carefully draft his plays to skirt the strict censorship in place.

His interest in word play was legendary, and his characters often mixed Viennese German with less-than-successful attempts at more "educated" speech.

He also produced a number of parodies, both of operas (including Cendrillion, La Cenerentola, Lohengrin, Martha, Robert le diable, Tannhäuser and Zampa) and dramas (including Karl von Holtei's Lorbeerbaum und Bettelstab and Raupach's Robert der Teufel).

About half of Nestroy's works have been revived by the modern German-speaking theatres and many are part and parcel of today's Viennese repertoire.

The Austrian illustrator and painter Reinhard Trinkler [de] adapted Nestroy's play Der Talisman for a graphic novel of the same name.