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1. The performers do not directly involve the audience, but rather put on a detached, presentational comedy for the audience to enjoy. 2. Yes. In order to convey the intimacy and confinement of the characters (who are locked in a lab), the audience should occupy the same room as the “monkeys.” 3. The play, which portrays three monkeys with typewriters, is not meant to be connected with any particular period. Any time modern enough to allow for typewriters, cigarettes, and laboratories would suit. 4. The monkeys are located in a cage, presumably in a laboratory, as a “Dr. Rosenbaum” is mentioned, and the monkeys are obviously part of an experiment. 5. The play does not specify. However, Dr. Rosenbaum must be watching, as someone lowers the cigarette when Milton throws a fit for it. Therefore, it might be during normal working hours. 6. Although all the monkeys are supposed to wear “the sort of little-kid clothes that chimps wear in circuses,” they could still be differentiated by costume design. The character of Swift is rebellious, so he could wear a more flamboyant outfit; Milton is more restrained, so his clothing could be more mature and less colorful; and Kafka is an enthusiastic and idealistic female, so her clothing would be “a flouncy little dress.” 7. The play does not specify, but the characters are monkeys living in a lab, so I would guess that, in keeping with typical zoos and labs, it is artificially warm and bright. 8. The characters are monkeys in a lab. They have no socioeconomic status. 9. All three characters are writers. 10. Not specified, and largely irrelevant, since the characters are talking monkeys, after all. 11. The characters know each other because they are part of the same experiment. 12. I looked the play up and read that the character of Swift is generally considered to drive the action, so he would be the emphasized character. Kafka and Milton would be roughly equal subordinates. 13. The monkeys are part of a controlled experiment, so there are deliberately no entrances and exits. 14. The play requires 3 typing tables, stools, typewriters, ashtrays (full), and wastebaskets (overflowing); typing paper; a tire-swing; a banana; a bowl of peanuts; an empty cigarette pack; a cigarette on a wire; and a lighter. The tables, stools, typewriters, ashtrays, and wastebaskets reflect the tireless and abundant writing that the characters have been doing. Milton, content with his environment, uses the tire swing that is provided (the rebellious Swift decries it as ridiculous), while the thoughtful Kafka is left to chew a banana slowly and carry an empty cigarette case. The peanuts are provided by Dr. Rosenbaum as luxuries to keep the monkeys typing. The cigarette, lowered by a wire, and its lighter have apparently been provided to keep Milton happy.