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El Paso Norte Press

Pandora's Box - A Tragedy in Three Acts (Lulu Part 2)

Pandora's Box - A Tragedy in Three Acts (Lulu Part 2)

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"Pandora's Box" (1904) (Die Büchse der Pandora) is a play by the German dramatist Frank Wedekind. With "Earth Spirit" (1895), it forms the second part of his pairing of 'Lulu' plays. Both plays depict a society "riven by the demands of lust and greed".

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: "Earth Spirit" and "Pandora's Box".

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.

The premiere of Pandora's Box, a restricted performance due to difficulties with censorship, took place in Nuremberg in 1904. The 1905 Viennese premiere, again restricted, was instigated by the satirist Karl Kraus. In Vienna, Lulu was played by Tilly Newes, later to become Wedekind's wife, with the part of Jack the Ripper played by Wedekind himself.

Also available in this special, uncensored and restored full length series of dramatic works by Frank Wedekind:

"Earth Spirit (Erdgeist) - A Tragedy in Four Acts - Uncensored Edition"
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