Frank Wedekind wrote the 1895 drama Earth Spirit, the first play in the Lulu cycle linked to Pandora’s Box. The second play is Pandora’s Box, and both works follow the character Lulu through relationships shaped by desire, power, and social judgment.
Wedekind’s Lulu dramas became influential sources for later theater, opera, and cinema. Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s 1929 silent film Pandora’s Box adapts material from both plays, with Louise Brooks giving the best-known screen performance as Lulu. Alban Berg later based his opera Lulu on Wedekind’s two dramas.
The title Earth Spirit is commonly translated from the German Erdgeist. It is not a retelling of Hesiod’s Pandora myth, even though the second play and Pabst’s film use the Pandora title. The connection is thematic and literary rather than a direct continuation of the ancient Greek narrative.
Wedekind’s work is often associated with German-language modern theater because of its frank treatment of sexuality and its challenge to conventional morality.