CSN’s ‘Why Torture Is Wrong’ finds authenticity amid lunacy

The College of Southern Nevada's production of "Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them" is funny stuff for an obvious reason (apart from the very humorous, unpublished Christopher Durang script): Director Ernest Hemmings and cast have managed to make a roomful of loony characters seem real.

That's no small feat when you take a look at those characters. After a single night of binge drinking, Felicity (Stefanie McCue) has gotten married to the violence-prone parasite Zamir (Kihapiilani Akui). Felicity's father, Leonard (Ken Kucan), is convinced Zamir's a terrorist and needs torturing. His dodo wife, Luella (Helen Okonski), lives life through a veil of idealistic fog. Hildegarde (Joy Demain), Leonard's assistant, can't keep her panties rolled up (literally) as she tries to spy on the bad guys. Reverend Mike (Deoin Cleveland) is a part-time minister and porn-maker. And our narrator, bartender and all-round showman (John Ivanoff) has a habit of cynically commenting to the audience on the action.

The play is Durang's flip of the finger to the George W. Bush administration. To be conservative in Durang's world is to be evil, but I'm not sure conservatives will be offended. They'll likely be too busy laughing.

Hemmings keeps tight control of his cast, so that the actors seem to believe the crazy things coming out of their mouths.

Kucan's joy of Leonard's murderous tendencies seems to grow out of a life-long hatred of the left. Kucan makes him the epitome of a Rush Limbaugh zealot. Okonski, as his wife, projects such a vague, distant look that she doesn't seem to be of this planet. Ivanoff has an off-the-cuff manner that makes his wisecracks seem like improvisations. And McCue's natural, understated performance as Felicity gives the show its rock.

I wish the show had been directed with proscenium staging, because Hemmings doesn't yet know how to take advantage of having an audience on three sides. (Even the curtain call is delivered to only one side of the house.)

But the director has overseen a knee-slapping, smorgasbord of an evening. You may find yourself later wanting to read more about Bush's attitude towardtorture, and the people who hate it.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at vegastheaterchat @aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.