Lulu: Pandora's Box (Die Büchse der Pandora): A Play in Three Acts - Softcover

Wedekind, Frank

Softcover

ISBN 10: 155742179X ISBN 13: 9781557421791

Publisher: A Frank Wedekind Bookl, 2010

Synopsis

"Pandora's Box" (1904) (Die Büchse der Pandora) is a play by the German dramatist Frank Wedekind. It forms the second part of his pairing of 'Lulu' plays (the first is "Earth Spirit" [1895]), both of which depict a society "riven by the demands of lust and greed." G. W. Pabst directed a silent film version loosely based on the play in 1929. Both plays together also formed the basis for the opera "Lulu," by Alban Berg, which premiered posthumously in 1937. In the original manuscript, dating from 1894, the 'Lulu' drama was in five acts and subtitled 'A Monster Tragedy'. Wedekind subsequently divided the work into two plays. It is now customary in theatre performances to run the two plays together, in abridged form, under the title "Lulu." Wedekind is known to have taken his inspiration from at least two sources: the pantomime "Lulu" by Félicien Champsaur, which he saw in Paris in the early 1890s, and the sex murders of Jack the Ripper in London in 1888.

About this title

About the Author:

As the International Dictionary of Theatre has it, German playwright Frank Wedekind (1864-1918) "owes his reputation to the fact he wrote plays about sex." His other famous play, Spring's Awakening (1891) was way ahead of its time in its depiction of repressed adolescent sexual urges.

About this edition

• Publisher: A Frank Wedekind Bookl
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 155742179X
• ISBN 13: 9781557421791
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 66