There's plenty of charm in "The Good Terrorists," by University of Hawai'i playwright Kyle Klapatauskas, now at the Earle Ernst Lab Theatre.

The action centers on four young adults with the blissful credulity of third-graders who do good deeds while wearing ski masks and camouflage suits. When they're not "paying it forward" with random acts of kindness, they play board games and hang out in a suburban basement. A mom at the top of the stairs makes potato salad and assures that all is well.

The best part of the production is David Gerke's environmental set; it effectively merges the audience and the actors in a collection of old sofas, laundry lines and pop art posters. It's as warm, cozy, and comforting as a puppy box lined with old blankets — a nurturing nest for the quartet of Pollyannas.

Dramatic conflict is supplied by three bad terrorists who charge down the stairs to invade the space and burst the security bubble. But this is a comedy, remember, so there is no real threat, even when the Good Terrorists are strapped into belts of explosives and readied to be reluctant suicide bombers on the night before Christmas.

The good guys are interchangeable optimists with the cuddly quirkiness of Cabbage Patch dolls. Two of the bad guys sport vague rolling-the-R's accents, while the third is a good ol' boy who delights in delivering "shock and awe."

Between the two groups is a television news personality who spends Act One taping a gratuitous interview that exists mainly to provide exposition, and who spends Act Two tied to a chair.

The playwright pours gallons of Christmas sentiment over everything to warm up the finale and wraps up all remaining loose ends with a deus ex machina phone call.

But while the evening has long stretches of static back-story and argument, it also offers the messy and comforting qualities you'd find in a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. Not quite enough to sustain two hours of live theater, but the experimentation is worthwhile.