Band of Toughs pull out the stops for a late-summer’s party of a play

‘Under the Stars with Brews and the Bard: As You Like it’ takes advantage of a quiet DCPA parking lot and atrium

There’s a point at the beginning of Band of Toughs’ version of As You Like It where audience members were wondering what the hell is going on. The production starts out on the fourth level of the Denver Center Performing Arts Complex parking lot — the same place they kicked off the last show of theirs I saw, Nirvamlet, in 2019. As 8 o’clock came, the only action going on was a guy in a rumpled white suit and tophat playing ukulele and singing so faintly that I struggled to hear the tune.

But soon, other cast members start wandering onto the scene, and this interactive, mobile production of one of Shakespeare’s beloved comedies started to resolve itself into something resembling a play.

As they did with Nirvamlet, the “BoTs” theatre collaboratory took over the DCPA space, only this time it was all outdoors. With none of the other theatres currently active under the atrium, BoTs had free rein to take advantage of the vast performing space they’d created from the common areas. The second stop was for us to travel from the parking structure down to the front of the Buell Theatre. There, we start to see the beginning of the show unwind, with the fight between Orlando and Charles played out as a ridiculous slapstick while Rosalind and her BFF Celia watch from one of the Buell’s second-story balconies (maybe the first and last time we’ll see two actors do a costume change up there).

As the action moves to the forest of Arden, we’re led to a sectioned-off outside area down the steps near where the entrance to the Ricketson Theatre used to be and into a welcoming circle with firepits, rugs, Adirondack chairs and a staffed bar.

Things were looking up.

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Setting the scene

There’s always suspension of disbelief when you file into a special room to watch people pretend to be characters they are not. But what if that space is, instead, an urban area where all order of noise has the potential to disrupt things?

Band of Toughs establish right away that, for the most part, they don’t give a shit if an ambulance or cop car goes wailing by, or some asshole is honking their horn incessantly out on Speer Blvd. Instead, they accept it as part of the landscape and even issued some audience members noisemakers, which the cast encouraged us to deploy when sirens took over the audio space.

Brilliant.

Opening night Friday happened to be a perfect summer/fall night (what season is it now anyway? I’m not sure), and hanging out in the forest of Arden as the players did their thing was really something special. Sure, an undertaking like this is bound to have some bugs – like the actors’ individual mics and on-person speakers weren’t always up to snuff – but for the most part the no-doubt high level of prep this all took played out well. They even had marshmallows to roast over the fires, which a number of people took up during intermission.

And while the overall mood set by the troupe is one of come-as-you-may insouciance, the actors did an admirable job with their parts while sticking, mostly, to the script. There are plenty of ad-libs, contemporary asides, modern songs and other enhancements thrown in between the action, but between it all was some solid acting. Janet Mylott is a delightful Rosalind, as is Liz Kirchmeier in the role of Celia. Michael Sater plays Orlando as a disheveled and oft-befuddled doofus who manages to win over the audience as his devotion to Rosalind remains constant. James Brunt steals a few scenes as Jacques, while David Saphier makes good use of that ukelele as one of the narrators as well as Oliver and Corin.

It’s hard to think of a better way to spend an evening in downtown Denver than with the Band of Toughs and their fun, whimsical and unique take on As You Like It.