Who wrote the 1904 German play Pandora’s Box?

Frank Wedekind wrote the 1904 German play Pandora’s Box. Its German title is Die Büchse der Pandora, and it continues the story of Lulu, a sexually independent woman whose relationships and social conflicts drive the drama.

The play is the second part of Wedekind’s Lulu cycle, following Earth Spirit. Wedekind’s work challenged conventional morality and theatrical expectations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Lulu became one of the most controversial and influential female characters in modern European drama, although interpretations of her vary widely.

The play is often confused with the 1929 silent film of the same English title. G. W. Pabst directed that film, and Louise Brooks played Lulu, but neither made the original play. Wedekind’s drama also inspired Alban Berg’s opera Lulu, which was left incomplete at the composer’s death and completed after his manuscripts were studied.