Which playwright wrote the plays Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box, featuring Lulu?

Frank Wedekind wrote the plays Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box, featuring Lulu.

Frank Wedekind was a German playwright whose Lulu dramas became the basis for the 1929 film Pandora’s Box. The two plays are Earth Spirit, first performed in the 1890s, and Pandora’s Box, which continued Lulu’s story. Together they present Lulu as a provocative figure whose relationships expose tensions around sexuality, respectability, and power.

The title Pandora’s Box connects Wedekind’s work to the ancient myth, but the plays are not translations of Hesiod. Wedekind reworked the name as a modern dramatic symbol. His Lulu material later influenced stage productions, films, and Alban Berg’s opera Lulu.

The playwright is sometimes confused with the film’s director, G. W. Pabst, or with Louise Brooks, who played Lulu in the best-known film adaptation. Wedekind created the character and wrote the source plays; Pabst directed the 1929 movie, and Brooks portrayed its central role.