Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them presented by American Ensemble at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop

Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them

Capitol Hill Arts Workshop
545 7th Street, SE Washington

A woman is suddenly in crisis: Is her new husband, whom she married when drunk, a terrorist? Or just crazy? Or both? Christoper Durang relieves our fears in this dark comedy for an era of yellow, orange and red alerts.

Presented by American Ensemble

Thru - Jun 11, 2011

Thursdays: 7:30pm

Fridays: 7:30pm

Saturdays: 7:30pm

Price: $8

Show Type: Comedy/Drama

Running Time: 2 hrs, 15 minutes with 1 intermissi

www.AmericanEnsemble.org

Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them Reviews

Average Rating based on 2 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Washington City Paper - Somewhat Recommended

"...Christopher Durang’s 2009 Why Torture Is Wrong, and The People Who Love Them is broadly satirical, expansively farcial, and increasingly self-referenial as it wears on. And wear it does. Director Ann Fraistrat has mustered a capable and frequently wonderful cast, but doesn’t throw enough coal in the boiler to make this unwieldy thing run at ideal speed. Even allowing for the production’s presumably modest budget, the set changes are clunky and protracted—simply turning the volume way, way up on the prerecorded songs that play over them would pump up the energy. As it is, we have too many opportunities to ponder how Durang’s justifiable rage over the boneheadedness and brutality of post-9/11 counterterrorism policy has resulted in a critique that often feels as cruel and careless as its targets. Call it the Gitmo approach to lampoonery: Durang doesn’t seem to mind if any innocents are caught up in his dragnet as long as he gets the bad guys, too."

- Chris Klimek

DCTheatreScene - Recommended

In their lively production of the playwright’s deliriously funny satire Why Torture is Wrong ... American Theater Ensemble leads the audience through a dark, alternate America, where the only sure things are a stiff drink and the Second Amendment.

- Ben Demers

Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them presented by American Ensemble at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop