Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb

Translator Snježana Rodek
Adaptation Jernej Lorenci, Matic Starina
Director Jernej Lorenci
Dramaturge Matic Starina
Composer Branko Rožman
Set designer Branko Hojnik
Costume designer Belinda Radulović
Lighting designer Andrej Hajdinjak
Choreographer and assistant director Gregor Luštek
Photographer Peter Uhan
Assistant director Arija Rizvić
Assistant costume designer Petra Dančević

Cast
Goran Grgić
Daria Lorenci Flatz
Dragan Despot
Luka Dragić
Franjo Kuhar
Bojan Navojec
Vlasta Ramljak
Dušan Bućan
Siniša Popović
Nikša Kušelj
Mirta Zečević
Dora Lipovčan
Lana Barić
Barbara Vicković
Nina Cosetto
Ivana Lazar/Ana Zebić

Frank Wedekind, the enfant terrible of his era, who was subject to censorship his entire creative life, subtitled his famous drama Pandora’s Box “A Monstrous Tragedy”. Why the censorship, why the cuts?
Lulu, the main character of the tragedy, is elusive: is she a whore-killer, an insatiable sexual black widow? Or a seeker of love, the kind of love that by no means fits the petty bourgeois standards? A cruel, radical, inconsistent, subversive love? A love with a deep awareness that without the proximity of death it does not even really exist?
Does the reason for such constant censoring lie precisely in the elusiveness of Lulu or Wedekind himself? Did Wedekind upset the clarity of the moral standards of his time by not offering a clear-cut answer? Who is the monster (Monstrous Tragedy!), Lulu or society? Do women like Lulu disrupt the world of men with their radical character?
And – is it really any different today? Is not sexuality again being blacklisted by the new neo-liberal conservatism? Is not an individual, especially a woman, once again nothing more than an object available for quick use, and then … Do we not live in an era that accepts only one relationship model (a man and a woman, the man somewhat older, with a decent income, etc.)? Have we not returned to the “good old days” of the hegemony of puritanism and hypocrisy?
I am afraid of Lulu, but I cannot help but love her. I cannot wait to meet and get to know her. She will tell me. I hope.