STAGE REVIEWS : ‘FREUDIAN SLIP’

Any comedy titled “The Girl in the Freudian Slip” can’t be all bad, and it’s not. But the current production by Irvine Community Theater is another matter entirely. Perhaps it’s an omen that there is no girl in anything resembling a slip anywhere in this production.

Call it a slip-up, but it’s a symptom of the problems here. This lightweight but amusing comedy by William F. Brown has potential that goes untapped, most often because of timing troubles. Brown pokes fun at the psychiatry profession in his tale of a happily married analyst who finds himself attracted to a shapely patient and vents his frustration by writing a play about his predicament. His teen-age daughter finds the play and gives it to a family friend to read, who in turn hands it over to his literary agent, who turns out to be the shapely patient.

The device that sets this comedy apart from a predictable sitcom is the use of the teen-age daughter as a hip narrator wise beyond her years and coolly objective, in sharp contrast to the bumbling, stumbling adults. Coincidentally, the narrator delivers most of the comic clout in this production, directed by Phil de Barros. His daughter, Wendi de Barros, plays the narrator with equal amounts of bemusement at the obtuseness of adults and a genuine fondness for the poor things. She manages to be condescending without being irritating--not an easy trick.

But the production suffers irreparably from timing problems that undercut the humor at every turn. Line trouble is accountable for part of it, but not all. Too often, the cast members are talking to each other but aren’t listening to each other. Robert Tashbook, however, provides a welcome edge of spontaneity as an aggravated patient who can’t get his analyst to answer even “What time is it?” without getting a question in return.

The Irvine Community Theater’s production of “The Girl in the Freudian Slip” will run through March 14 at Turtle Rock Community Park, Sunnyhill Road at Turtle Rock Drive, Irvine. Information: (714) 857-5496.