Which playwright wrote the 1904 drama Pandora’s Box, the second part of his Lulu cycle?

Frank Wedekind wrote the 1904 drama Pandora’s Box, the second part of his Lulu cycle.

Wedekind’s Pandora’s Box, or Die Büchse der Pandora, continues the story of Lulu, a provocative and socially disruptive figure. It follows Earth Spirit, the first play in the cycle, and examines sexuality, class, power, violence, and hypocrisy in late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century European society.

The play is not a direct stage version of Hesiod’s Pandora myth. Its title uses the mythic image as a metaphor for the dangers and forces released by Lulu’s presence. The connection explains why the work is often discussed alongside the ancient story even though its plot, setting, and characters are modern.

Wedekind’s Lulu works later influenced film, opera, and theatre. Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s 1929 film Pandora’s Box drew substantially on the Lulu plays, while Alban Berg’s opera Lulu also developed from Wedekind’s material. These adaptations can make the authorship of the original drama easy to overlook.