Kafka’s Monkey
Red Peter is a former ape who makes a report to an academy, about his time being an ape. Red Peter doesn’t remember much about his ape life but tried to recall as much memory as he can.
Red Peter was an ape who was captured from an African jungle and caged on a ship to Europe. He was kept in a really small cage that he could neither stand nor sit. The Europeans from the ship would sometimes mock him as an ape. The only way Red Peter could escape captivity was to learn the human behavior, and eventually become one. He learned to shake people’s hands and learned to talk like a European. The only thing he could not master was to drink alcohol. Once they arrived in Europe, he had a choice to live in a zoo or the music hall. He chose the continue the human life even though he had no desire to become a human.
The play ended with Red Peter exiting with an alcohol problem.
