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You would think that biting satire and sentimental comedy would go together like waterboarding and the Geneva Conventions, but then, not every playwright is Christopher Durang. America's longtime lampooner of cracked Americana is back with "Why Torture Is Wrong and the People Who Love Them," a dark yet strangely optimistic snapshot of our confusing times.

Sweet young thing Felicity, played by Laura Benanti, wakes up in a hotel room bed beside Zamir, the charming yet quick-tempered Amir Arison. Felicity quickly learns that she and Zamir got married the night before in a drunken blur and he expects her to support him.

But wait, things get worse: turns out Zamir has a shady, possibly criminal past. Appealing to her WASPy parents, the ditzy, theater-obsessed Kristine Nielsen and gun-toting super-nationalist Richard Poe, Felicity finds her domestic crisis spiraling out of control. Before you know it, her father is spying on Zamir, convinced he's a terrorist, and fully prepared to torture the truth out of him.

Durang, being a consummate absurdist, allows the situation to reach maximum wackiness, throwing in a pornography-making minister played by John Pankow, a handful of the father's shadow-government agents, and a droll narrator, played by David Aaron Baker.

The satirical targets include, naturally, the insanity of torture as a way to get information, as well as sillier stuff, such as a recurring site gag of Audrie Neenan's panties falling down around her ankles.

Directed with zip by Nicholas Martin on David Korin's zany revolving set, "Why Torture Is Wrong and the People Who Love Them" resolves itself in a surprisingly sweet fashion, as Felicity tries to smooth out her romantic troubles and avert World War III at the same time.

If the grammar of Durang's title doesn't quite scan and brings to mind Stephen Colbert's book "I Am America And So Can You," that seems to be the plan. Like Colbert, Durang is an expert at getting inside the minds of fanatics for laughs. And much as I enjoy "The Colbert Report," it's nice to see New York theater getting in on the topical fun.