Last Hurrah

Germinal Stage Denver is leaving the building: Late last year, Germinal Stage founder Ed Baierlein announced that after 26 years in the now-crumbling north Denver theater at 44th and Alcott, he was selling the property and the forty-year-old company would vacate the space after one last golden season.

Not that Germinal is calling it quits. Baierlein hopes to continue staging plays in rented houses. But there’s a sense of loss nonetheless: If only walls could talk…

Tonight’s opening — Peter Handke’s Offending the Audience, a so-called “anti-play” first performed by the company in 1976 and featuring a cast of Germinal friends and veterans (at least a few of them from the original production) — will be the last play premiere to grace that well-worn stage. Who wouldn’t want to risk being offended just to be part of this moment?

See Offending the Audience at 8 p.m. this evening at the Germinal, 2450 West 44th Avenue; the show continues Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through August 25. Tickets range from $19.75 to $23.75 (or take your chance on a $15 rush ticket fifteen minutes before any performance); call 303-455-7108 for reservations or visit germinalstage.com for information.

Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 10, 2 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Starts: Aug. 9. Continues through Aug. 25, 2013