Why Torture is Wrong, And the People Who Love Them

Penny Kline of Ovation Stage continues her love affair with the plays of Christopher Durang with this 2009 dark satire on America's culture of gun violence, racism and paranoia. It is laugh-out-loud funny and suck-in-your-breath scary, sometimes both at the same time. This would be perfect theater of the absurd if the absurdities weren't so damn real. Kline directs with a keen sense of the urgency of Durang's message: Not only is torture wrong (it goes against our better natures), but it often doesn't work. Words heard out of context and used to take hasty actions out of misguided “patriotism” serve no good. But this is a comedy, and everything and everybody, including Hooters, Guantánamo, Terri Schiavo and Tom Stoppard are not safe. F, Sa 8pm; Su 2pm; Through 7/7. $15-$18. Three Penny Theatre, 1723 25th St.; (916) 448-0132; www.ovationstage.com.