Kafka’s Ape is a relentless, disturbing confession of a former ape who escaped his cage by learning to imitate “civilised” humans. Trapped in a suit and with impeccable language, Red Peter reports to an academy that analyses him like a guinea pig while simultaneously applauding his “progress.” When a black South African plays this quasi-human being, the play tears open the histories of racial caricature, scientific racism, and the politics of respectability. It asks: What do you have to cut off from yourself to be accepted as human – and is survival worth it if you end up becoming your own jailer?