Casperl is evicted by his landlord and starts looking for a job. He is employed by professor and explorer Gerstenzucker, as…a monkey! Indeed, the professor’s monkey, Schimpanse, has just died. He was trying to teach him human culture to prove that man and monkey are related. But Casperl is ill-behaved. He poses as Gerstenzucker and treats one of his female visitors with extreme uncouthness. Then he fights the professor, wreaks havoc on the inn and sows discord in town. Everyone ends up at the police station, where the fake monkey is exposed. As other characters try to throw him behind bars, Casperl knocks everyone unconscious and, at the end of the play, goes drinking to celebrate the final victory of Darwinism.

String marionette

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Germany

Munich

Printed

End of the month

Household

Women's condition

Philosophy

Poverty

Natural sciences

Monkey

Darwinism

Culture

Job seeking

Woman author

Animal savant

Tavern

Savage

Animal instinct

Comical

Satirical

Farcical

Illustration on the title page of the 1875 edition

German

Intermezzo in einem Aufzug

Teacher

Kasperl

Madame Kasperl

Mayor

Magistrato

Landlord

Court usher

Domestic scene

Brawl

Comic Equivocation

Disguise

Parody of formal language

Off-stage voice

Schimpanse, der Darwinaffe

Chimpanzee, the Darwinian monkey

The Neuf Coriaces (Nine Tenacious) are the last remaining survivors of a species that was once composed of billions of individuals. Their hunger led them to devour each other. They understand that they are responsible for the survival of their species, but are still looking for a way to choose who will be the next to be devoured. One of the Coriaces suggests that they stop eating members of the species, without success. They discover La Fragile Créature (The Delicate Creature) that one of the Coriaces keeps hidden in a box, and welcome her in their Confrérie de la Marmite (Fellowship of the Cooking Pot). After contemplating for a while, they devour her. After this last meal, they start the same conversation they had at the beginning of the play, as if they have forgotten everything that has just happened.