[NEohioPAL] Review of "The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity" at Karamu Theatre

[Bob Abelman]

Let's get ready to stumble: Karamu's 'Chad Deity'

 

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the Cleveland Jewish News on 3/21/14

 

Kristoffer Diaz's intriguing "The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity," currently on stage at Karamu Theatre, requires the audience to buy into two things in order for the play to be truly effective and entertaining.

 

The first is the playwright's premise that the over-the-top, entertainment-driven world of professional wrestling is a viable metaphor for the American Dream and those who get to live it.  

 

In professional wrestling, spandex-clad cultural archetypes enter the ring to do battle for supremacy, entitlement and reward.  Who plays the "face" or the "heel" - the good guy or bad guy purposefully positioned to be cheered or booed by fans and win or lose the match - reflects American ideals in microcosm.  A wrestler's race and nationality is used, manipulated and exploited by owners and promoters to tap the current tide of racism and nationalism in order to generate audience reaction and inspire the sale of merchandise and pay-per-view specials.  

 

All this is revealed by Macedonio "Mace" Guerra (an enchanting Davis Aquila), a young, self-aware wrestler with a conscience.  

 

Through his eyes and hip-hop rhythmic direct-address, we witness what those with varying shades of brown skin - including the massive African-American egotist Chad Deity (Reginald McAlphine), the street-savvy Indian-American Vigneshwar Paduar (Prophet Seay) and, of course, our Puerto Rican narrator - need to do to survive life, impress white owner Everett K. Olsen (Mark Seven), and rise to the top of the pro-wrestling food-chain.

 

Diaz makes this part of the buy-in easy, for his writing - which was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2009 - is as eloquent and interesting as it is insightful.  Charming, personal self-disclosures by his characters reveal universal truths and the poetry that arises from wrestling bravado proves to be an original and attractive vehicle for storytelling.  

 

But what is also required to make this play fly and its metaphor work is a sense of authenticity,  and it is here that this Karamu Theatre production fails to answer the bell.

 

For more of this review go to:  http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/features/leisure/arts/article_f2cb2688-ade6-11e3-890b-001a4bcf887a.html
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