Any contest between the integrity of an art form and its commercialism is pretty easy to predict.
The Curious Theatre company’s production of Kristoffer Diaz’s edgy drama “The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity” sketches out the kind of battle between craft and profit in a compelling and mesmerizing way. The powers that be compromise an art form for the sake of money, ratings and commercial success. After years of struggle and silence, a veteran artist takes a stand to fight for the grace, beauty and purity of his calling.
Here’s the twist: in this case, that calling is professional wrestling. Here, the craft in question lies in the proper execution of scissor holds and super kicks, in the careful creation of heroes and villains, plot lines and conflicts that play out in the limited space of a wrestling ring. The production gives a life and heart to a sport that most theater audiences would most likely write off as fake. Diaz’s text gives the drama’s lead character, a veteran wrestler named Mace, the kind of pathos and determination that makes any good sports movie a success. More impressively, the production lends artistry and beauty to the world of professional wrestling, a world where heroes and villains are made through violence and stagecraft.
That world bears strong, if unlikely ties, to the creative milieu of the theater, and the Curious production of “Chad Deity” makes those links clear in a surprisingly moving way. Director Chip Walton recreates the atmosphere of professional wrestling with careful and consistent detail. The ambience comes through in the impressive set design by Charles Packard that takes a cue from the set of “WWE Raw,” in the guest appearances from Aurora’s own Primos Wrestling Company who take part in bouts on the mat set up in the center of the stage and the well-choreographed fight routines performed by the lead actors.
All of these elements lend a moving power to the central story, a drama rooted in basic questions of creativity, integrity and profit. A Puerto Rican professional wrestler with the stage name Mace (simplified from his real name Macedonio Guerrero for the sake of ticket sales) kicks off the conversational tone of the play with stories culled from childhood. Mace (played with an easygoing accessibility by Michael Lopez) speaks of mornings spent watching wrestling matches on television with his brothers. He talks fondly of the art and craft of the sport, its acrobatics and the beauty of its storylines.
It’s a passion that earns him a spot in “The Wrestling” company, an outfit that resembles the national powerhouse World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. And just as WWE boasts Vince McMahon as its CEO and chief advocate, the fictional “The Wrestling” company has found national success under the leadership of EKO (William Hahn), a willfully ignorant manager whose primary concern is profits.
Under EKO’s direction, Mace plays the role of a throwaway villain in the ring, taking scripted falls and losses for the sake of the company’s hero, Chad Deity (Patrick Byas). While not a particularly skilled wrestler, Deity has the stage presence, physique and presence of a hero. Deity is a cash cow, a wrestler whose theatrics and presence makes him a natural star.
Deity’s status finds a challenge when Mace enlists VP (Akshay Kapoor), a Indian-American friend from Brooklyn who boasts the kind of presence that’s ideal for the ring. While Mace and VP have visions of creating a new kind of ring hero rooted in Indian roots, EKO sees an opportunity to breed a vicious kind of villain, a bad guy named the Fundamentalist who draws on the worst kind of cultural stereotypes and Islamophobia for his impact.
Unlikely themes spring from this setup. The show morphs into a treatise on artistic intention and integrity, and that message finds a powerful vehicle in the impressive roster of lead actors. Hahn is slimy and unnerving as the CEO of “The Wrestling,” Byas is by turns hilarious and imposing as Deity, and Kapoor and Lopez make for a stunning pair in the show’s lead roles.
Together, they shed a new light on a sport that’s easily oversimplified. The combat in the ring takes on a different degree of weight by the end of the show, and the parallels to the worlds of painting, music and even theater are moving.
“The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity”
“The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity” runs until Oct. 13 at the Curious Theatre, 1080 Acoma St. in Denver.
Tickets start at $25.
Information: 303-623-0524 or curioustheatre.org
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com or 720-449-9707