The first major production was "The Serpent," and it toured both nationally and internationally."The Serpent" typifies what is extraordinary about the Open Theater. The production is a perfect example of experimental theatre at the time and how willing the company was to employ unconventional theatre techniques that were based on improvisation in order to created a very pointed piece. According to the playwright Jean Claude Van Itallie, a member of the company, the piece was conceived with the idea that the actors would act as priests and that there would be a sense of one-ness amongst the congregation that they are questioning the same things in which the priest is questioning. Questions such as where does evil come from? What provokes people to commit murder? Is maintaining innocence a possibility within the contaminated world that which we walk upon? Though most of the piece is done in choreographed movement, mime, human sound-effects, hand-held instruments, there is text as well coming directly from the Bible along with a number of speeches written exclusively for the show.