Review: THE ELABORATE ENTRANCE OF CHAD DEITY at Profile Theatre

Here's a sentence I never imagined I would write: "You've got to see this awesome play about professional wrestling." But that's the power of great theatre, right? Its capacity to surprise you and make you see beauty in something you'd never considered beautiful before. In my case, professional wrestling.

THE ELABORATE ENTRANCE OF CHAD DEITY, by Kristoffer Diaz, tells the story of Macedonio Guerra (Matthew Sepeda), a young Puerto Rican man who loves professional wrestling. Growing up in New York, he watched it every Saturday morning on TV, and he fell in love both with the physical sport (is it a sport?) and the stories - the characters, the costumes, the rivalries. It's all he ever wanted to do.

And he does. Using the stage name Mace, Macedonio achieves his dream of becoming a pro wrestler, but like many dreams it's not exactly how he pictured it. Mace is a talented wrestler, but he's small and, at least according to the boss at THE Wrestling, Everett K. Olson (Duffy Epstein), not the kind of character the fans want to root for. So, Mace's job is to make the other guy look good by losing. In particular, he has to make the reigning champion Chad Deity (La'Tevin Alexander) - a wrestler with a perfect physique, but no talent - look good.

One day, Macedonio meets Vigneshwar Paduar (Naren Weiss), aka VP, a charismatic young man who plays a killer game of basketball and can flirt in six languages. Macedonio thinks that maybe with VP, he can tell his own wrestling story for once, so he introduces VP to Olson. Once again, things don't quite work out as Macedonio planned - Olson is only interested in making money, which means trotting out the same types of heroes and villains as always, i.e., relying on racial stereotypes. Ultimately, the play is about who gets to tell the stories and what types of stories they get to tell.

I loved this play. It's beautifully written - sharp and funny, but also poignant and often poetic. It's one of those rare plays that is a heck of a lot of fun and also has something meaningful to say. Every member of the cast does a phenomenal job of hitting the comedy, the tragedy, and everything in between. And then there's the spectacle - the set and lighting are perfect, and director Josh Hecht and wrestling director William "Malcolm Phlex" Evans have put together a show that's just as real as any pro wrestling match. Hats off to Levi Cooper, who fully commits to his several characters and takes a ton of hits in the ring.

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