This play fictionalizes the 1925 Scopes "Monkey" Trial which resulted in John T. Scopes's conviction for teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution to a high school science class, contrary to a Tennessee state law. The theme of intellectual freedom explored in the play applies to many other ideological debates, such as the McCarthy trials that were going on at the time it was written in 1955. According to the playwrights, “We used the teaching of evolution as a parable, a metaphor for any kind of mind control…. It's not about science versus religion. It's about the right to think.”