Kristoffer Diaz’s adrenaline-surging, body slamming satire, “The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity” is smart and blisteringly funny, and yet rife with the kitschy appeal that wrestling fans will love.
You don’t have to understand the playwright’s piercing commentary on fame, fortune, race and class to enjoy Company One’s finest production to date. But if you do, the dazzling costumes, flying objects and sleeper holds make the entire spectacle much more meaningful.
Director Shawn LaCount accomplishes the seemingly impossible with “Chad Deity.” The production’s flash, trash-talk and wrestling ring set make you feel like you’re at an actual pay-per-view event. The “Elabo-rate” entrances and seemingly authentic choke holds, dropkicks and piledrivers create the mania that fuels this bustling branch of show business.
It took LaCount an entire year to cast this show, but it was time well spent. The ensemble gives the production its heart and humanity while making you feel like you’re in a wrestling arena getting a glimpse behind the curtain.
You never feel like you’re watching a play. You cheer for the good guys, scowl at the bad guys and hoot and holler any time you feel like it.
Rarely does an entire cast turn in stunning performances, but this troupe collectively delivers brilliance. And they learned to wrestle like champs!
Plot points
Chad Deity is the undisputed champion of the T.H.E. wrestling league, though he couldn’t do it without the help of Mace, the opponent who always falls prey to his Power Bomb. The balance of power shifts, however, when Mace brings a young Indian-American man into the business.
‘The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity’
Through Aug. 25
BCA Roberts Theatre
539 Tremont St., Boston
$20-$42, 617-933-8600
