Who wrote the Lulu plays that inspired G. W. Pabst’s 1929 film Pandora’s Box?

Frank Wedekind wrote the Lulu plays that inspired G. W. Pabst’s 1929 film Pandora’s Box.

Wedekind’s Lulu cycle consists primarily of Erdgeist, or Earth Spirit, and Die Büchse der Pandora, or Pandora’s Box. The plays center on Lulu, a charismatic woman whose relationships with men lead to social scandal, violence, and tragedy. Their provocative themes challenged conventions of late nineteenth-century German theater.

Pabst’s film adapts both plays but changes and compresses aspects of the stage material. The title is thus connected to Wedekind’s second Lulu play as well as to the older Greek expression. The film and plays should not be confused with a literal continuation of Hesiod’s myth; they use the Pandora association as a modern symbol of danger, desire, and consequences.