Who wrote the 1904 play Pandora’s Box, part of the Lulu drama cycle?

Frank Wedekind wrote the 1904 play Pandora’s Box, the second part of his Lulu drama cycle. The play follows Lulu, a sexually independent and destructive central character whose relationships bring social scandal and tragedy.

Pandora’s Box follows Wedekind’s earlier play Earth Spirit. The two works are often performed together or treated as a single Lulu cycle, although they were written and published as separate dramas. Wedekind used the name Pandora’s Box to evoke the destructive consequences associated with the mythological container, rather than to retell the ancient Greek story directly.

The play has also been adapted for opera and film. Alban Berg’s opera Lulu draws on both Wedekind plays, while G. W. Pabst’s 1929 film Pandora’s Box became especially famous for Louise Brooks’s performance as Lulu. These adaptations helped make the title a major reference point in twentieth-century European culture.