Finally! ‘Theater of the Mind’ opens in Denver

Denver Center Off-Center production is a wild spin through alternative reality

Things are not as they seem in Theater of the Mind — an interactive and highly experiential production of the Denver Center’s Off-Center branch. Long delayed by the pandemic, TOTM is a creation of David Byrne and Mala Gaonkar that features an all-star cast of Colorado actors all portraying the same character: David (as in Byrne).

Which actor you see depends on which show you attend, and there are quite a few of them. Each audience has only 16 people in it, and you’re shuffled through a half-dozen different rooms — or sets — as other audiences and other Davids follow behind. That configuration allows for quite a few performances, each of which is about 75 minutes. (Despite this, shows are selling out fast and the run was recently extended into December.)

Aimed at presenting different types of theatre experiences that typically take place far from the fancy theatre spaces at the Denver Center, Off-Center chose for TOTM an old warehouse space at York Street Yards in the Clayton neighborhood in north Denver. You’ll be forgiven for thinking you’re lost when Google has you turn onto an abandoned-looking area off East 39^th Street. Soon, though, you’ll see the TOTM signs directing you back, all the way back, through a warren of warehouse spaces to arrive at a nondescript door where the action is.

Guide Donnie L. Betts hands out some curious treats. | Photo: Matthew DeFeo

With 15,000 square feet of space to play with, the Off-Center team created a fascinating and meticulously detailed labyrinth of rooms, each of which features unique and sometimes startling attributes both familiar and challenging to the mind. (I’m purposefully omitting a lot of detail here because much of the experience’s appeal is based on the delightful surprises that await beyond each door David opens.)

Going back to lyrics on the very first Talking Heads album in 1977, Byrne has always been fascinated with the absurd as well as the distance between what we perceive and what we think of as reality. In TOTM, that’s borne out in elaborate style as David (in my show portrayed by a genial and vaguely mysterious Abner Genece) talks directly to the audience members as he walks among us.

Part one-actor show, part magic show, part haunted house and part science experiment, it’s easy to say that TOTM is a one-of-a-kind experience that defies any categorization. We’re all used to parlor tricks and other ways in which our often-unreliable dependence on our senses dupe our mind, and this show exploits that with sight, sound, touch, and even taste. What’s unique about it is the level of detail in each room aimed at supporting one particular realization, as well as the presence of a friendly guide in the form of a David.

Despite all the neat sets and the experiments, TOTM does rely quite a bit on the age-old appeal of human interaction. Genece was great in this role, channeling both the mysterious forces his David knew a thing or two about with his own wonderment at what we were experiencing as a group. And it’s as far away from a proscenium stage setup as you can be, since David is standing next to or close to you the whole time.

Guide Lisa Hori-Garcia kicks off the action. | Photo: Matthew DeFeo

I have to say that every single one of the actors on the list of Davids are ones I’d love to see, as no doubt those unique personalities will create something that’s quite a bit different for every audience. And so there’s that: The show you experience will not be like any other.

So, what should you expect when taking part in this experience? You’ll be given a nametag with your character’s name on it (I was Lena), and find yourself mixing it up with 15 other people who are all in the same boat as you. You’ll experience some things involving lightness and darkness, how our mind can be easily tricked to see things that are there — or not there. You’ll get to see the world through young David’s eyes as well as other points along his path. When you leave, you’ll feel a bit disoriented, perhaps questioning whether those people in the lobby are, in fact, there. You may find driving a car to be rather alien, and your taste buds may be a bit mixed up.

It’s all part of that little theatre our minds create, and TOTM does a nice and enjoyable job of taking us out of the real world for a spin in that nether region where things are certainly not as they seem.