{"id":2636,"date":"2012-09-02T01:01:03","date_gmt":"2012-09-02T01:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=2636"},"modified":"2012-09-02T01:01:03","modified_gmt":"2012-09-02T01:01:03","slug":"elaborate-entrance-grasps-pro-wrestling-via-satire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/elaborate-entrance-grasps-pro-wrestling-via-satire\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Elaborate Entrance\u2019 grasps pro wrestling \u2014 via satire"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In \u201cThe Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety,\u201d the champ (Beethovan Oden, center) confronts VP (Nasser Khan) as The Mace (Tony Sancho) looks on. Photo by David Allen.<\/p><\/div>\n

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I\u2019m surprised that, considering their enormous popularity, Spiderman, Batman, Wolverine and other trademarked superheroes don\u2019t show up in professional wrestling circles.<\/p>\n

Those figures apparently are confined, principally, to comic books and screen adaptations.<\/p>\n

So wrestling buffs have to settle for the more mundane likes of John Cena or past heavyweights like Gorgeous George, Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Steve Austin or Andre the Giant.<\/p>\n

Such mental meanderings lead me to Kristoffer Diaz\u2019s \u201cThe Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity,\u201d one of the season\u2019s worst titles but most amusing plays.<\/p>\n

The serio-comic satire, proficiently directed by Jon Tracy, is unique.<\/p>\n

The Aurora Theatre Company stage in Berkeley has been transformed into a wrestling ring by set designer Nina Ball and the actors mutated into what one correctly refers to as \u201ccaricatures in a world of cartoons.\u201d<\/p>\n

To ensure a frenzied atmosphere, the audience is urged during a pre-play warm-up to shout out the characters\u2019 hyperbolic names, boo the villains, cheer the good guys, and perforate the air with outstretched fingers.<\/p>\n

The crowd spiritedly follows instructions, lending an exciting interactive quality to the production.<\/p>\n

The only thing missing, according to my archaic recall of a live match in New Jersey, would be a cloud of cigar smoke hovering over the ring.<\/p>\n

Because the Aurora is small, the faux wrestlers often thrust themselves in your face.<\/p>\n

More distant are twin screens in the rear. They playfully project a variety of images, including deliberately awkward and de-sexed go-go dancing by Elizabeth Cadd.<\/p>\n

As well as two wonderful sequences that Photoshop real-life heroes Abe Lincoln and Martin Luther King into shots of the flamboyant champ, Chad Diety, and villains like Stalin and Darth Vader with the contender, VP, who changes into a Muslim-terrorist type, The Fundamentalist, who can annihilate foes with a mysterious kick dubbed \u201cThe Sleeper Cell.\u201d<\/p>\n

You need know nothing about wrestling or its Pay-Per-View paydays to enjoy the ridicule.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because the protagonist, The Mace, a journeyman Puerto Rican wrestler from the Bronx who\u2019s forever cast as a loser, provides all the necessary background.<\/p>\n

He intertwines fact, fiction, labor-versus-management feelings, metaphor, social consciousness, seriousness and humor in his narration. At the same time, he deals with characters wrestling with their identities as men, as ethnics, as Americans, as wage slaves.<\/p>\n

His is a fast-talking monologue that ties together action scenes as professionally as a doc might stitch a wrestler\u2019s wounds.<\/p>\n

Actual wrestling-mat moments, by the way, are chiefly limited to the second act of the two-hour play, which make it pass more swiftly than the first.<\/p>\n

Nasser Khan is exceptional as VP (or Vigneshwar Paduar), an anti-stereotype character who speaks six languages, does one-arm push-ups and performs rap.<\/p>\n

And Beethovan Oden stands out as Chad, a charismatic giant whose strut replicates actual \u201cchampions\u201d of the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE instead of WWF).<\/p>\n

Tony Sancho, who portrays Macedonio Guerra (or The Mace), also does well, considering he has about a zillion words to deliver. His speeches thankfully are leavened with bright asides to the audience and countless sardonic one-liners (\u201cIt is teamwork even if I\u2019m the only one on the team doing the work\u201d).<\/p>\n

If I closed my eyes, I could visualize the WWF\u2019s Vince McMahon via Rod Gnapp\u2019s portrayal of THE league owner and chief conniver, Everett K. Olson, who at one juncture reclines effortlessly on one rope of the ring.<\/p>\n

Finally, Dave Maier skillfully rounds out the cast \u2014 in multiple roles, including a lithe descent from the ceiling.<\/p>\n

Sometimes \u201cThe Elaborate Entrance\u201d message is a bit heavy-handed, such as the dollar sign displayed on Chad\u2019s hindquarters. And sometimes it borders on the offensive, as when it derides pro wrestling\u2019s racist and xenophobic attitudes via over-the-top costuming by Maggie Whitaker (an incredibly large Mexican sombrero and ammo belts, for example).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety\u201d won an Obie and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. In my view, it deserved both accolades.<\/p>\n

Playwright Diaz, an honest-to-goodness wrestling fan with a full grasp of the genre, has been quoted as saying that the mock sport is a \u201creally wonderful art form but\u2026does tend to play to the lowest common denominator.\u201d<\/p>\n

No matter. Diaz has created a let\u2019s-pretend world that highbrow or middlebrow audiences can enjoy every bit as much.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity<\/a>\u201d runs at the Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley, through Sept. 30. Night performances, Wednesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m., Tuesdays and Sundays, 7 p.m.; matinees, Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $32-$50. Information: (510) 843-4822 or www.auroratheatre.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I\u2019m surprised that, considering their enormous popularity, Spiderman, Batman, Wolverine and other trademarked superheroes don\u2019t show up in professional wrestling circles. Those figures apparently are confined, principally, to comic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"