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Grappling with race and identity
Friday, May 21, 2010
BY ROBERT FELDBERG
The Record
STAFF WRITER
REVIEW
 JOAN MARCUS Michael T. Weiss and Terence Archie in a scene from 'The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity.' |
New off-Broadway play, at the Second Stage Theatre, 305 W. 43rd St.
Written by Kristoffer Diaz. Directed by Edward Torres.
With Desmin Borges, Michael T. Weiss, Terence Archie and Usman Ally.
Schedule: 7 p.m. Tuesday; 2 and 8 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday; 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 3 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets: $70.
212-246-4422 or 2ST.com.
In "The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity," playwright Kristoffer Diaz doesn't make things easy for himself.
He attempts to satirize the self-satirical, while condemning the insensitivity of an industry that thrives on its crassness.
He does manage to find a way, though, to deliver his messages with imagination.
The play, which opened Thursday night at the Second Stage Theatre, is about the world of professional wrestling, presented by Diaz and director Edward Torres in a free-wheeling, hip-hop style.
The set is dominated by a wrestling ring, but the actors wander the aisles, flexing their muscles and interacting with the audience.
The main figure is Macedonio Guerra (Desmin Borges), who grew up poor in the Bronx and has realized his boyhood dream of becoming a pro wrestler.
He's an anonymous "opponent," the guy whose job it is to face the champion, Chad Deity (Terence Archie), and to lose, while using his athletic ability - which is much greater than Deity's -- to make the star of the show look good.
He's proud of his craft, his ability to do the "heavy lifting."
The funny, fast-talking Mace, as he's known in the ring, is the evening's narrator, and he's a very engaging one.
Mace's life changes when he learns of a charismatic, rapping young Indian, Vigneshwar Paduar (Usman Ally), known as VP, who's assimilated himself into Latino street culture.
Mace has the brainstorm of making VP a wrestler, and soon Everett K. Olson (Michael T. Weiss), the crude and ignorant owner of the wrestling circuit, for whom all dark-skinned people are interchangeable, comes up with a marketing plan.
VP - "This Israeli Iraqi, whatever he is," in Olson's description -- will be sold as a generic Muslim terrorist, known as The Fundamentalist, and his key hold will be the camel crunch.
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