“Tegan Verheul might not be doing any of the moves. She might not be that comfortable standing on a chair even, but she delivers an inspiringly fearless performance.”
Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)
I don’t know anything about professional wrestling except that it has something to do with ‘Moana’ and the greatest movie ever made – ‘The Scorpion King’. Tegan Verheul on the other hand fell head over heels in love with pro-wrestling even as she fell in and then out of love with her husband. It’s not hard to see why creative people would be drawn into the high-energy, high-stakes, high-cannot-believe they just did that world within a world of big muscles, big personalities, and even bigger rivalries.
Pro wrestling immediately captures the imagination in a way that only the very top six or seven Fringe productions about the impacts of climate change on inland colonies of kittiwakes during the prohibition era can. Is mass appeal crass appeal? Who chuffing cares if it makes people happy?!
Tegan Verheul might not be doing any of the moves. She might not be that comfortable standing on a chair even, but she delivers an inspiringly fearless performance that will leave you feeling like you too could just about pull off an Inverted Death Valley driver on the grandmother of whichever EBay bidder it was who jumped in at the last minute and stole that mint condition Saraya Jade Bevis action figure from under your nose.
Just like the megastars she’s describing, Verheul has a pedigree scaffolding her rise to greatness. I don’t know if The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama or the Guildhall School of Music and Drama offer programmes in pro wrestling, but maybe it’s time they did. It is a joy to hear one highly trained professional throw so much love and light on the work, dedication, struggles, and legacy of those working another cultural seam. This is a show that hits all the high notes (with a steel chair) even for an admittedly disinterested newbie. This is a show that simply crushes those same high notes (and makes them cry for their meemaw) with the wrestling super fans in the audience who are on the edge of their seats from the get-go and on their feet stomping like Rey Mysterio just slammed Silo Sam into the mat.
The show is structured with a double-helix. It’s a fan’s starstruck journey and it’s also a woman’s heartsick journey. There is a pretty hefty shovel in my garage and I would take it kindly if you would bash my brains out with it the very moment I ever turn down a woman like Tegan Verheul. But somebody did! Repeatedly! leaving Tegan feeling starved of love even as her cup of wrestling friendships overflowed.
If you have ever felt underappreciated, this is a show for you. If you have ever wondered what it takes to step back, re-evaluate, pick a new life course, abandon the disappointing but familiar present and take a chance on the possibility that you too deserve to be loved and happy, then this is a show for you. If you are totally unmoved by pro wrestling but simply love a cracking bit of storytelling delivered by a professional at the top of their game and loving it, then this a show for you.
Get your Wrestlemania coats on and go see this!
Get Your Coats On 
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