Einen Jux will er sich machen

  • Zangler, grocer in a small town
  • Marie, whose niece and ward
  • Weinberl, clerks at Zangler
  • Christopherl, apprentice at Zangler
  • Kraps, house servant at Zangler
  • Gertrud, housekeeper at Zangler
  • Melchior, a vazierender servant
  • August Sonders
  • Madame Knorr, fashion goods dealer in the capital
  • Mrs. Fischer, widow
  • Miss of Petal, Zanglers sister in law
  • Brunninger, businessman
  • Philippine, milliner
  • Lisette, chambermaid at Miss of Petal
  • A caretaker
  • A coachman
  • A guard
  • Rab, a crook
  • First and Second waiter

A joke he wants to make is a farce with songs of Johann Nepomuk Nestroy and was premiered on March 10, 1842 at the Theater an der Wien. The piece is considered a " showpiece of the Austrian national literature ".

The piece is based on the farce A Day Well Spent by John Oxenford in the year 1834. It is a comedy of errors. However Nestroy plays with the traditional genre clichés. He distances himself from the stereotypical confusion and coincidences and boosts it to the absurd. Instead of using the dramatic elements, he plays with them. Thus it is a precursor to the comedy technique of Eugène Labiche. Thornton Wilder, the piece used as a template for his comedy The Merchant of Yonkers (1954).

Content

The main character is the Commission Weinberl. Instead of taking care of the general store of his companions Zangler, he goes with the apprentice Christoph in the nearby capital. There, they run almost Zangler in his arms. To escape him, the two become entangled in ever more absurd confusion and misunderstanding. Verkomplizierend worse, that they meet Marie, Zanglers ward, with her by Zangler not in vogue lovers Sonders. The confusion lead so far that at Zanglers sister Petal finally face disguised as Weinberl and Weinberl as Sonders Sonders. With barely Weinberl and Christoph escape the confusion and return to business. There they catch a burglar in the act and be praised for it by Zangler. Even Marie and Sonders may close in the arms of each other for the happy ending.

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