I\u2019ll say this for the 2017-18 Perseverance Theatre season: it certainly starts off with a bang. Actually, not a bang, but a \u201cPower Bomb,\u201d the signature move of the title character of the season opener, \u201cThe Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity,\u201d a vibrant comedy set in the wacky world of professional wrestling.<\/p>\n
Obviously, devotees of theatre tend not to be pro wrestling fans (and vice versa), although both industries rely heavily on symbolism, illusion and the suspension of disbelief. Still, regardless of your taste for large men in tight spandex pretending to beat the heck out of each other, \u201cChad Deity\u201d offers a refreshing change of pace for anyone who finds contemporary theatre a tad stuffy.<\/p>\n
Indeed, complete with thumping music, flashing lights and real (by which I mean fake) wrestling, this brawny production of Kristoffer Diaz\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-nominated script celebrates the loud, bright, larger-than-life \u201csport\u201d the play lauds as the true American pastime, \u201cone of the most profound expressions of the ideals of this\u2026 nation.\u201d Perseverance went to great lengths evoking the look, feel and sound of a main event, plunking down an actual ring in the center of the theatre and hanging jumbo projection screens, banners and chain link fencing \u2014 an homage to the fabled \u201csteel-cage death match.\u201d<\/p>\n
And yet, amidst the fixed fights and phony body slams \u201cThe Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity\u201d also radiates intellectual energy, as it grapples with issues of class, race, celebrity, art, capitalism and American pop culture.<\/p>\n
The play follows the life of wrestler Macedonio Guerra (ring name \u201cMace\u201d), whose role as a \u201cjobber,\u201d in wrestling parlance, involves perpetually losing to bigger-name stars. For Mace, that\u2019s Chad Deity, himself, the preening egocentric champion and face of THE Wrestling.<\/p>\n
Ironically, Mr. Deity stinks at wrestling (his talent is showmanship). Macedonio, a lifelong devotee, has developed into a skilled practitioner \u2014 in professional wrestling, the \u201closer\u201d does most of the heavy lifting, selecting the order of moves and delivering a performance specifically meant to enhance the audience\u2019s enjoyment of his defeat.<\/p>\n
Mace is the consummate fall guy. He exists solely to make other people look good (which, in turn, also makes them rich and famous). \u201cYou can\u2019t kick a guy\u2019s ass without the help of the guy whose ass you\u2019re kicking,\u201d he says in one of many extended monologues (for a pro wrestler, he sure does wax philosophic \u2014 at length, especially during the play\u2019s first act).<\/p>\n
And this suits him fine. To Macedonio, wrestling is an art form: \u201cyou wouldn\u2019t put down ballet just because you know the swan is going to die before the end, would you?\u201d<\/p>\n
But when he meets swaggering Indian-American kid Vigneshwar Paduar, VP for short, Mace spies an opportunity to change his narrative, shake up the sport and maybe, just maybe, finally outshine Chad Deity.<\/p>\n
Nimbly directed by Shona Osterhout, \u201cChad Deity\u201d attempts to paint a lifelike portrait of people who are, themselves, caricatures. And it\u2019s nothing if not entertaining. Here, audience members become ringside spectators \u2014 literally. Perseverance reconfigured some of its main stage seating arrangements to surround the ring, just like an authentic pro wrestling match. At my performance, some people showed up carrying signs; one couple even wore Mexican \u201clucha libre\u201d masks.<\/p>\n
Audio-visually, the production also dazzles, courtesy of Greg Mitchell\u2019s set and lighting, Paul Spadone\u2019s spot-on costuming (can you say gold glitter codpiece?) and Rory Stitt\u2019s sound design. The onstage wrestling bouts, courtesy of fight choreographer Frank Delaney, look and feel as real as the real thing, which is, of course, not real at all. Wow, that\u2019s meta.<\/p>\n
And the cast also seems to revel in the fun. Perseverance actor-in-residence Enrique Bravo gives us a funny, but nuanced Mace, equally at home meditating on global politics and demonstrating the \u201cCamel Clutch.\u201d Vimel Sephus delivers a delightfully muscular performance as Chad Deity and Jacob Athyal shines as VP, particularly in his wrestling persona, a swarthy, bearded character called \u201cThe Fundamentalist,\u201d whose specialty move is the \u201csleeper cell kick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rounding out the cast: Perseverance Artistic Associate and Director of Education Tom Robenolt as Everett K. Olson, the money-hungry and clueless boss of THE Wrestling and Richard Jay Carter, listed in the credits as The Bad Guy but also double-and triple-cast as wrestlers Billy Heartland and Old Glory. Talk about a \u201cjobber.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diaz\u2019s dialogue snaps, crackles and pops, as you might expect from a Pulitzer-nominated playwright, although some may find his message a little heavy-handed, and his themes too blatantly spelled-out. \u201cChad Deity\u201d isn\u2019t subtle, but then, neither is professional wrestling.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Geoff Kirsch is a freelance writer living in Juneau.<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ll say this for the 2017-18 Perseverance Theatre season: it certainly starts off with a bang. Actually, not a bang, but a \u201cPower Bomb,\u201d the signature move of the title character of the season opener, \u201cThe Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity,\u201d a vibrant comedy set in the wacky world of professional wrestling. Obviously, devotees of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-30158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30158"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=30158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}