Theatre troupe Batighar staged the 20th show of its much acclaimed production ‘Monkey Trial’ at the Nilima Ibrahim Auditorium in the capital yesterday.
The play is the 15th production of Batighar and based on Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee’s Inherit the Wind. Muktonil directed the play.
‘Monkey Trial’, a fictional courtroom drama, is based on 1925’s ‘Scopes Trial’ where a high school teacher was accused of violating Tennessee’s Butler Act.
The trial was deliberately staged in order to attract publicity to the small town. Scopes was unsure whether he had ever actually taught evolution, but he incriminated himself deliberately so the case could have a defendant.
The science teacher was later jailed for violating state law.
When the news broke in the media around the world, the case sparked widespread discussion and criticism and opened a new chapter in American history.
