The First Man

The First Man is an attempt to write a modern, sophisticated play that would yet incorporate some of the concepts that had emerged in the romantic studies of the sea. The manner is that of the realistic Strindberg, but the play also includes certain elements of social satire and appears to have an autobiographical basis. It opened at the Neighborhood Playhouse on March 4, 1922, with Augustin Duncan as Curtis Jayson. Reviews of the production and of the play ranged from the negative to the violently condemnatory. There was general agreement among the critics that the play was miscast, that Duncan was too old and that a vital idea had been lost in murky writing.

Bruce Curry is the leader of a mercenary band with the dubious support of three white officers. His mission is to relieve a mining town cut off by the fighting and to retrieve a priceless consignment of diamonds. Ranged against his ill-disciplined unit are bandits, guerrillas and hostile tribes that infest the land. But there is another, even deadlier enemy -- one of his own men...