ARTS . Theater Review

Ring Leader

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity


	print	email	reply	rss feed

Published: Nov 3, 2009

Seth Rozin

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Before The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity begins, two wrestlers thrash on Adam Riggar's wrestling ring set, crashing to the mat and bouncing off the ropes. But Eric "The Smoke" Moran and Nick Martorelli aren't fighting — they're rehearsing. Then Macedonia "Mace" Guerra (the brilliant Juan Pacheco) reveals the realities behind the show: how his skill at "making guys who suck look like they don't" generates money for star Chad Deity (Donté Bonner) and his boss, Everett K. Olsen (Jeb Kreager). "Being talented," Mace says dryly, "is not a factor of key importance."

While we're enjoying Mace's sardonic, rhythmic narration, both cunningly dissecting Chad's celebrity (his Power Bomb move requires falling forward while Mace does all the work) and celebrating wrestling as "profound artistic expression," playwright Kristoffer Diaz introduces larger issues through Brooklyn hip-hop/basketball phenom Vigneshwar Paduar (outrageously magnetic Shalin Agarwal), who's "the most amazing thing in the room."

Mace recognizes the ego and charisma of a natural-born wrestling star, but Olsen is perplexed by how to market a wrestler who's "brown, but not your brown." He christens Paduar "The Fundamentalist" — a hilariously un-P.C. turbaned America-hating terrorist — with Mace as cigar-chomping sidekick Che Chavez Castro. Though Mace tells us it's been done before, the evil duo becomes a sensation, leading to an ideological clash with all-American Chad Deity both in and outside the ring.

What succeeds beyond the wrestling spectacle in director Seth Rozin's fine production — highlighted by John Bellomo and Tony "Hitman" Stetson's choreography, Steve Organ's live video feeds and an irresistible invitation to cheer and boo — is not so much the socio-political commentary expected from InterAct, but the sincerity Pacheco brings to Mace. Wrestling, he reveals, is really about good storytelling — just like theater.

Ends Nov. 22, $25-$29, 2111 Sansom St., 215-568-8077, interacttheatre.org.