audiobooks
Cover of Earth Spirit

Earth Spirit

Frank Wedekind

Length
2 h 17 min
Chapters
4
Language
English
Genre
Plays
First published
1914

Earth Spirit (1895) (Erdgeist) is a play by the German dramatist Frank Wedekind. It forms the first part of his pairing of 'Lulu' plays (the second is Pandora's Box [1904]), both of which depict a society "riven by the demands of lust and greed". Together with Pandora's Box, Wedekind's play formed the basis for the silent film Pandora's Box (1929) starring Louise Brooks and the opera Lulu by Alban Berg in 1935 (premiered posthumously in 1937). The eponymous "earth spirit" of this play is Lulu, who Wedekind described as a woman "created to stir up great disaster." Indeed, she is a purely sexual creature who scandalizes the community and drives men to ruin. The play has attracted a wide range of interpretations, from those who see it as misogynistic to those who claim Wedekind as a harbinger of women’s liberation. (Summary by Wikipedia and ChuckW)

Cast Lulu: Amanda Friday Dr. Schon: Algy Pug Alva Schon: Chuck Williamson Dr. Goll/Schigolch: Alan Mapstone Schwartz: Aidan Brack Prince Escerny/Ferdinand: bala Escherich/Narrator/Prologue: Elizabeth Klett Rodrigo: Wupperhippo Hugenberg: Charlotte Duckett Countess Geschwitz: Caprisha Page Henriette: Naomi Park

Audio edited by Chuck Williamson and Elizabeth Klett Pronunciation guide by Karlsson

Chapters

From LibriVox, read by volunteers and in the public domain. LibriVox page (opens librivox.org), the text (opens gutenberg.org), all files on the Internet Archive (opens archive.org).