When it comes to The Catamounts, the show can go on in seemingly unlikely places.
From a rolling golf course in Westminster to a defunct dairy farm that once supplied milk to the tuberculosis patients of Jewish National Hospital on Sheridan Boulevard. From a marshy open space near the foot of the Flatirons to the sculpture park adjacent to Fiddler’s Green. These are among the municipal (often suburban) spaces that have gotten a fresh, bold charge from collaborations between the theater troupe and its civic partners.
Now, the Boulder-based theater company — which specializes in unexpected, engaging, often achingly wise, increasingly immersive work (under the artistic direction of Amanda Berg Wilson) — has gently commandeered a corner of Thornton’s Anythink Library for its latest immersive adventure, “After the End.”
Part of the Rangeview Library District, this branch is pretty and welcoming even without a beguiling show about — what else? — books. Or one book in particular, one that stands in for all the dusty volumes and their forgotten sagas that end up retired by Adjudicators to make room for other stories.
Audience members are guided through rooms as the story unfolds as participant observers: There’s an oversized closet full of books, a schoolhouse, a train car, a grocery and more.
The story features Lena, a young woman trying to find a copy of the novel that her grandmother wrote. At the outset of “After the End,” Lena bursts into a conference room where audience members are seated and quickly ropes those who are gathered into helping her find the novel Gracelynn Fern penned about a young girl named Mollie Bardo. Mollie was, as the title of the lost book avers, “Stranded in Silver Hill,” thanks to a slew of powerful snowstorms.
Lena didn’t really know her grandmother, and although she came into possession of Fern’s journals, she didn’t read them before they were all but lost. An anonymous letter containing a catalog card (ahem, not the Dewey Decimal System) and a key send Lena (and us) on a hunt. And what better place to seek out a rare volume than a library?
Before we embark on the pursuit, Lena offers a few of the traditional (if cleverly introduced) caveats of libraries and theaters: keep it to a whisper and cellphones off. But she also says something odd and prophetic to the audience: “Oh, and you’re you. I know that’s a weird thing to say, but sometimes I don’t feel quite like myself, like I’m playing a character.”
It doesn’t take long to realize that strange things are afoot. The first stop is that storage closet, called the Library of the Lost. After Fern’s book is found, the group wends its way through the “set.” As Lena and we, the accidental players, read out loud from the pages of “Stranded,” it becomes clear that the novel is eerily like the action. Or vice versa. Are Lena and Mollie melding? Certainly, the schoolmarm Aunt Kit (an archly amusing McPherson Horle) thinks something’s awry in the way Mollie is behaving.
Fabian Vasquez portrays the endearing train porter, Grey John, who tries to put Lena and her fellow passengers at ease once the train can’t go any further. The dance he shares with Mollie — or is she Lena? — is a sweet turning point. Don Randle is rightly officious as the Adjudicator, and amusing as longtime Silver Hill resident and mildly insufferable mayor Cappy Winslow.
On a recent Saturday afternoon, Lena was played with energetic warmth by Min Kyung (Cecillia) Kim, who alternates the role of the searching granddaughter with Adeline Mann.
As immersive shows go, “After the End,” appears wonderfully modest. Through the work to coordinate the sound design (Max Silverman), the period costumes and prop foraging (Joan Bruemmer-Holden and Linda Lea, respectively), the set upon which the audience roves (production designer Matthew Schlief and stage manager Rain Young) is no mean feat.
The charming “After the End” is written and co-conceived by Luke Sorge, who has worked at the library for 13 years. His title: Generalist Guide. When you’re quite literally in the midst of a story unfolding, it’s not always easy to really hear the language. But some of the lines are wonderfully poetic.
“My grandmother wrote it. Her name was — well, still is, even if she’s gone, it’s still her name, right?” Lena says with a concern about the right existential verb those who’ve lost loved ones know well. The script balances melancholy and wonder, confusion and more than a few ah-has, with understated aplomb.
When the Anythink Libraries opened (starting in 2010), they were an intriguing rethink of how libraries could serve citizens. Their mission statement: “We Open Doors for Curious Minds” nicely echoes the Catamount motto: “Theater for the Adventurous Palette.”
“We’re constantly imagining ways to connect our community to things they may want or need, whether that’s traditional library materials like books and computers, or non-traditional things like Cricut machines and musical instruments,” said Sorge in an email.
“Immersive theatre is just an extension of that. Offering a relatively new and exciting form of performing arts — free of charge, like everything at the library — is really in keeping with Anythink’s core values. And, as we do with much of our programming, we love collaborating with local artists and experts like The Catamounts.”
Lisa Kennedy is a Denver-area freelancer specializing in film and theater.
IF YOU GO
“After the End”: Written by Luke Sorge. Directed by Amanda Berg Wilson. Featuring Min Kyung (Cecillia) Kim and Adeline Mann (alternating performances), McPherson Horle, Fabian Vasquez and Don Randle. At Anythink Library, 9417 Huron St., Thornton, through Sept. 14. For tickets and info: thecatamounts.org.
