Essay Questions

What was the main purpose of the play?

In the play and in the performance, two people, a couple, are presented in a cage while the audience is told to come near them, look at them, pay to have them perform dances or take photographs with them. This play was set up as a criticism to the way Europeans and Americans used to treat those coming from distant tribes from which the viewers never hear of. In many instances, a few people were bought or even kidnaped from their tribes, put in cages and paraded through the civilized societies of Europe and America. Large groups of people paid money to be allowed to see those people, described as strange or exotic by their handlers. Those people were usually treated like animals, and the women had to suffer sexual violence as well, being forced to sleep with paying customers. The play has the aim to criticize this practices and the way in which those people were treated like animals, not human beings.

Why is the year when the performances first took place important?

The performances were first staged in the year of the celebration of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in America. He was the first European to reach the new land in more than 500 years and his ‘’discovery’’ changed the world forever. While many hail him as a great explorer and a wonderful sailor, the dark history of Christopher’s Columbus was not forgotten. When Columbus returned to Europe, he brought with him a large number of natives which he took as slaves. He continued to kidnap a large number of natives which he later sold in Europe as slaves. During the time he was in what is today known as Haiti, he oppressed the natives, using force and weapons to make them submissive. Many natives were killed at the order of Columbus and many others died because of the diseases introduced to the native population by the European travelers. It is estimated that because of Columbus’s discovery, more than half of the native population died. Today, these facts have been largely forgotten and covered up while Christopher Columbus was hailed as a hero, having numerous celebrations named after him. The reason why the performances were set on the year of the anniversary of Columbus day was also to protest the cover up which happened in history, and the what in which the larger part of population seemed to forgot about what really happened when Columbus reached the new land for the first time.

How did the couple end up as being exhibited?

The author of the play claims that the couple in the cage agreed to go on the tour, despite being locked in a cage. From the perspective of the viewers, this is highly unlikely, especially considering how the man and the woman were being treated like animals and not like human beings capable of reasoning and taking decisions for themselves. This is used to argue that the exhibition can be considered moral and normal so that no one has a reason to criticize the exhibition. This however may not be true and this claim that the couple agreed to be caged could be a lie. In the past, those who exhibited black people and Indigenous people often used this excuse to argue that their actions were justifiable. Fake contracts were used to show that the people in the cages agreed to be there and most important, that they profited out of those affairs as well. While it is possible that some people may have agreed to be exhibited for profit, the situations often degenerated into something completely different from what they were supposed to be.