A commendable effort by writer Kenneth Brown, actor Caley Suliak and very hard-working tech.
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Stage 14, La Cité Auditorium (8627 91 St.)
With a dense, twisty plot more like an Alan Dean Foster Han Solo novel than, say, that weak-sauce Disney+ Obi-Wan series, The Paladin is first and foremost about its intricate and original world-building, which Girl Brain’s Caley Suliak both narrates and dramatizes, all on her own.
Well, all on her own with a half-dozen-plus canned audio performances and more than 500 separate audio and lighting cues, that is — big nod to her hard-working tech. This is, in effect, a radio play, but with Suliak miming a lot of action we’re hoped to imagine.
In the flesh, Suliak plays Space Ranger Orphea Flange, a space rascal with a dead wife on the wrong side of a number of galactic bullies, including telepathic pigs and a planet-sized space face known as The Vizier. There are laser fights, space battles and a thick script full of dialogue, including a compelling renegotiation between Flange and her robot spaceship where some blame is fascinatingly accepted.
George Lucas is summoned in the first few lines for having a bigger budget, but there is that Star Wars prequels feeling of Suliak sitting a lot in front of a green screen.
Still, a commendable effort by both the writer, Kenneth Brown, and Suliak. And that tech, of course.
