| Synopsis: |
Two of Wedekind's most seminal plays, "Earth Spirit" and "Pandora's Box" both focus on the actions of the young heroine Lulu, who embodies both animal sensuality and waif-like innocence, as she escapes a life on the streets, receives a society education, marries, takes on various lovers, becomes a dancer in a revue, is imprisoned for murder, and encounters Jack the Ripper. When "Earth Spirit" was premiered Leipzig in 1898, Wedekind was vilified and persecuted for advocating unfeigned sexual pleasure and making his heroine a heartless whore. "Death and Devil" and "Castle Wetterstein," the other plays that make up this volume, are essentially extensions of and complementary to the Lulu tragedies. |