(His given name is Darnell, but shhhh!)

Opposite him is the Fanatic, whose wrestling resumé has him representing al Qaeda, Hamas, and for good measure, the French. He enters the ring with a prayer mat. He takes on fighters like Old Glory and Billy Heartland. He is their personal terrorist. Female fans bow in burqas.

(He's really Vigneshwar Paduar, a street-savvy American of East Indian descent. But shhhhh!)

This is wrestling, slyly scripted at best, pathetically cynical at worst, and constantly lucrative for the promoter who, in The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, manipulates fans by exploiting racial attitudes, geopolitics, fear, and the notion of patriotism.

It's also theater that puts you in a solid intellectual headlock and won't let up - funny throughout, thoughtful, and commanding, with a script as nimble as the champ it depicts. In its dynamic InterAct Theater staging by Seth Rozin, the company's producing artistic director, Chad Deity fills the ring with characters you wish you really knew, portrayed by actors who make sure you'll know them.

It fills the ring, literally. The play by Kristoffer Diaz, a fine writer of Puerto Rican descent, is not being performed in InterAct's usual space at the Adrienne on Sansom Street. It's a block away, at the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre, where Adam Riggar's scenic design has turned the larger performance space into a mini wrestling arena, with three big TV screens and a ring, the audience on three sides.

The play is lighted meticulously by Peter Whinnery and features live stage action simultaneously projected in TV close-ups - a fine-tuned mockery of the genre, captured mostly by camera operator Samantha Kristina Clarke, who plays a ringside showgirl.

InterAct is presenting Chad Deity at the same time the play is in its world premiere at Chicago's Victory Gardens Theatre. The cast here is impeccable: Juan Pacheco as the narrator, the guy who always loses and does all the work to make the winner look great; a superbuff Donté Bonner as Chad Deity, who masters the choreography and the showbiz of the form; Jeb Kreager as the promoter with a mental sack of cheap tricks; and Shalin Agarwal as the impossibly hip street guy who becomes the improbably fearsome Fanatic.

They're supported by Nick Martorelli in several roles in the ring and by Eric "The Smoke" Moran, a real-life pro wrestler. Fight choreographer John Bellomo teamed with wrestling consultant Tony "Hitman" Stetson to make the action as real in the ring as it is in a play that rings true.

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity

Presented by InterAct Theatre Company at the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre, 2111 Sansom St., through Nov. 22. Tickets: $25-$29. Information: 215-568-8079 or www.interacttheatre.org.