Lulu in the Philippines

The Philippine Daily Inquirer ran an insightful, and somewhat lengthy article about a recent production of Lulu (the Frank Wedekind play) on their website. And of course, Louise Brooks plays a significant role in the article's analysis of the play and the Philippine production. Check it out here.

The article by Gibbs Cadiz, "Femme too fatale in Dulaang UP’s Lulu," notes "The Lulu plays, with their fervid glorification of a woman's sexual rapaciousness and the devastation it wreaks on the world around her, has served as an Ur-text in the evolution of the iconic femme fatale in popular culture -- from Marlene Dietrich's Lola-Lola in The Blue Angel to Barbara Stanwyck's Double Indemnity (notice the hommage in names?), from Hitchcock's gallery of deadly blondes to the Botticelli-tressed Glenn Close as the terrifying Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction."

Cadiz adds, "They all owe a debt to Lulu more specifically to her now-celebrated cinematic embodiment, the Lulu of American actress Louise Brooks in German director G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box."

Cadiz continues, and remains focused on Brooks: "While seemingly unmoored from motivational underpinnings, Lulu's anarchic, iconoclastic nature did have a purpose: It was the shattering blast of modernity Wedekind had lobbed at fin-de-siècle Germany, with its smothering rubric of social, economic and psychosexual conventions -- the real aim of his subversive dramaturgy."

"Pabst reportedly auditioned numerous women, including Dietrich, before settling on Brooks for his Lulu. The smoldering Dietrich (25 at that time to Brooks’ 21) was rejected because, as Pabst explained, her overripe sexuality, her all-too-seductive look threatened to turn Pandora’s Box into a 'burlesque.'"

"Pabst wanted an actress who combined allure and innocence, sensuality and grace. When he found Brooks, he photographed her exactly as Wedekind had conjured Lulu: an ethereal presence, seemingly separate from the common humanity around her, her stunning face -- that otherworldly gaze -- and lithe figure always more luminous, the light more alive in her presence."

While I don't think the author gets it completely right, there are some interesting points made in the article. Check out the Philippine perspective.

Lulu von Frank Wedekind

Here is the cover of a recent German edition of Frank Wedekind's Lulu. It was published by Königshausen & Neumann in 2006. It's an edition I haven't seen before. I like the fact that Lulu is so bored.

A Lulu in Ottawa

The Ottawa Citizen reports that a new play, based on Frank Wedekind's Lulu plays, is now playing at the National Arts Centre in the Canadian capital. The play, titled "Ce qui meurt en dernier," was written by Normand Chaurette.  According to the Ottawa Citizen

Now Normand Chaurette has revived Wedekind's characters for Ce qui meurt en dernier (That which dies last), his first new play since 2001. Last year, Chaurette's friend and longtime collaborator Denis Marleau suggested that Chaurette write something for the actress Christiane Pasquier. The author was inspired by Pasquier's electrifying performance as Countess Martha von Geschwitz in a Lulu staging Marleau had directed a dozen years ago. The result is essentially a one-hour, virtuoso monologue for one of Canada's greatest stage actresses.

A passing reference to Louise Brooks is made in the article. I would be interested to know if any reader of this blog has seen the production. [More on the play can be found here and here.]

Spring Awakening, a new translation

Today, I received an advance copy of Jonathan Franzen's new translation of Frank Wedekind's play, Spring Awakening. Here is what the publisher has to say.

First performed in Germany in 1906, Frank Wedekind’s controversial play Spring Awakening closed after one night in New York in 1917 amid charges of obscenity and public outrage. For the better part of the twentieth century Wedekind’s intense body of work was largely unpublished and rarely performed. Yet the play’s subject matter—teenage desire, suicide, abortion, and homosexuality—is as explosive and important today as it was a century ago. Spring Awakening follows the lives of three teenagers, Melchior, Moritz, and Wendl, as they navigate their entry into sexual awareness. Unlike so many works that claim to tell the truth of adolescence, Spring Awakening offers no easy answers or redemption.

I haven't had a chance to yet read the work, though I did read Franzen's challenging introduction. In it, the acclaimed, National Book Award winning novelist (The Corrections, etc...) notes Wedekind's California origins, his troubled history, as well as the play's controversial New York City debut. Franzen also mentions Wedekind's Pandora's Box, the character of Lulu, and their relationship to Spring Awakening, as well as the fact that Alban Berg wrote an opera based on the Wedekind play. (Franzen did not mention Pabst's film or Louise Brooks.)

I term Franzen's introduction challenging because Franzen does not hold his punches when discussing earlier translations, or even the recent Broadway musical - which he terms "insipid." From what I gather, this new translation promises a fuller and more truly representative version of Wedekind's work. We shall see. It would be great to see him translate Pandora's Box.

“Spring Awakening is the best play ever written about teenagers, and Jonathan Franzen's fraught yet buoyant translation is the best I've ever read.  In a culture where lies about adolescence prevail, this funny and honest play is more relevant than ever. Spring Awakening is essential reading.”  — Christopher Shinn

A Spring Awakening - Pandora's Box connection

Everybody knows that Spring Awakening (the play which served as the source for the hit Broadway musical) and Pandora's Box (the play which served as source for the 1929 film starring Louise Brooks) were BOTH written by the German dramatist Frank Wedekind.

Well, the connection doesn't stop there. Recently, two member's of the Tony award winning Broadway play were interviewed prior to the screening of the Louise Brooks film. According to a May 29th article in the New York News,

Tonight the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville will be hosting a special Q&A with the Tony-nominated talent behind the Broadway musical "Spring Awakening."

Composer Duncan Sheik and book writer-lyricist Steven Sater will be interviewed by New York Times critic Janet Maslin in conjunction with a screening of the 1929 silent-film classic "Pandora's Box." 

I wasn't able attend this event at the Burns Film Center (which is located in the New York City area). Did any reader of this blog make it to this screening and onstage-talk?

p.s. The long-dead and somewhat neglected Frank Wedekind has certainly been getting more attention lately. This is due in large part to the success of Spring Awakening on Broadway. Interestingly, due out this fall is a new translation of Spring Awakening by acclaimed novelist Jonathan Franzen (author of The Corrections).

A Wedekind revival ?

Might there be a Frank Wedekind revival brewing? There is an article which speculates as much on Broadwayworld.com The article, "Mark Lamos Directs Wedekind's LULU at Yale Rep," notes the forthcoming production in New Haven. Not Surprisingly, the article mentions Louise Brooks, the most famous Lulu (and the most famous Wedekind character) of them all.

According to Lamos, “When James Bundy suggested Wedekind's Lulu as a possibility for my return to Yale Rep, I hadn’t read it for many years. What struck me most was how different the play was from G.W. Pabst’s silkily sensual silent film starring the legendary Louise Brooks. It also bore only passing resemblance to Alban Berg’s operatic incarnation. Wedekind worked from a tradition of cabaret, vaudeville, and the political club scene of his time. The original Lulu is much more absurdist, more knockabout than the famous film and the lushly atonal operatic masterpiece. His work inspired artists in all mediums, including Bert Brecht, whose experimental mixing of styles and tones became a staple of the 20th century avant-garde.”

The article then goes on to note, "With the recent Criterion DVD release of Pabst’s Pandora’s Box (1929) and the hit Broadway musical adaptation of Wedekind’s Spring Awakening, now is the time to rediscover this highly influential playwright." [ And not to forget the Silent Theater production of Lulu which played in Chicago, NYC and San Francisco.]

p.s. I wonder why the producers chose Carl R. Mueller translation of Wedekind's play, and not one of the many others by Stephen Spender, Eric Bently, Samuel Eliot, etc....

The First Lulu

Speaking of rare book acquisitions, and speaking of Wedekind's play (the subjects of my last two entries) - I recently acquired a copy of the first American publication of Pandora's Box. It's pictured below. This softcover book dates from 1914. The translation is by Samuel A. Eliot. Four years later, the play would be published in hardback. And five years after that, it was published in a collection of Wedekind's plays titled Tragedies of Sex. I have copies of each.

I guess you could say I am a completeist. Or a detailist . . . . Interestingly, its a little known fact that Pandora's Box was staged in New York City in 1925 while Louise Brooks was living there. That production had only a short run, and there is no indication that Brooks saw it or was aware of it. (The play was considered both somewhat "modern" and somewhat "artsy.")

Another Lulu book

I just came across this edition of Frank Wedekind's Lulu play, which now features Louise Brooks on the cover. (The earlier edition did not.)



Book Description: Lulu is a walking, talking object of sexual desire. Each of the first four acts of the play sees her married to a different man, each of whom dies at the end. In the fifth act, Lulu has become a prostitute in late-Victorian London where she encounters Jack the Ripper, who she deliberately leads on. This is Nicholas Wright's new version of Wedekind's early 20th century erotic drama. 

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.

"Lulu" by Frank Wedekind

Lulu

Ich liebe nicht den Hundetrab
Alltäglichen Verkehres;
Ich liebe das wogende Auf und Ab
Des tosenden Weltenmeeres.
Ich liebe die Liebe, die ernste Kunst,
Urewige Wissenschaft ist,
Die Liebe, die heilige Himmelsgunst,
Die irdische Riesenkraft ist.

Mein ganzes Innre erfülle der Mann
Mit Wucht und mit seelischer Größe.
Aufjauchzend vor Stolz enthüll' ich ihm dann,
Aufjauchzend vor Glück meine Blöße.

by Frank Wedekind