Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them: And Other Political Plays

Christopher Durang has been called Jonathan Swift’s nicer, younger brother (The New York Observer). His plays are known for containing hilarity at every turn and revealing social commentary in every corner. Now collected in Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them and Other Political Plays are Durang’s most revealing political and social satires. Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them tells the story of a young woman in crisis: Is her new husband, whom she married when drunk, a terrorist? Or just crazy? Or both? Is her father’s hobby of butterfly collecting really a cover for his involvement in a shadow government? Does her mother go to the theater frequently to seek mental escape, or is she just insane? Add in a minister who directs porno, and a ladylike operative whose underwear just won’t stay up, and this black comedy will make us laugh all the way to the waterboarding room.

[Durang’s] funniest play in years. A play that equals his early hits. –John Simon, Bloomberg

Comedic napalm, something like a cross between The Marriage of Bette and Boo and Dr. Strangelove. Durang has now joined ranks with Dario Fo. Durang is getting a lot off his chest, and off ours… unnervingly true and cathartic. –Bob Verini, Variety