Frank Wedekind wrote the 1904 drama Pandora’s Box, later adapted into Pabst’s 1929 film.
Wedekind’s Pandora’s Box is the second of two linked plays centered on Lulu, following Earth Spirit. The plays were written in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and became controversial for their frank treatment of sexuality, social power, exploitation, and bourgeois respectability.
Georg Wilhelm Pabst used both Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box as sources for his 1929 film. Louise Brooks’s Lulu became the best-known screen interpretation, but the character originated on the stage. Wedekind’s Lulu is not simply a version of the ancient Greek Pandora; the connection is primarily thematic and titular.
The play’s publication and performance history was affected by censorship and changing versions. Its enduring reputation comes from its confrontational social criticism and its influence on later theatre, film, opera, and literary adaptations.