Fractured Mirror Will Laughingly Reflect on the ‘80s With Sketches

Fractured Mirror, the resident comedy troupe at the L.P.R. Dinner Theatre, intends to get a jump on all the media pundits who are about to heap us with hindsight about the ‘80s.

The troupe will offer a two-hour show on Sunday that collects “the best of what we’ve done over the past six years,” Trisha Burson, a founding member of the group, said Thursday.

Sketches culled from more than 15 hours of original material will “talk about everything--sex, love, marriage, life, death, space, time,” Burson said. These and other cosmic subjects, such as “relationships,” will be seen through a “cracked perspective,” she added. “We look like normal human beings but we’re not.”

Besides skewering the “me” decade with well-tested routines that include “Mr. Nice”--in which someone is harassed, assaulted and jailed for being (what else?) nice--Fractured Mirror will also try out new material.

Burson said one untested routine will be “Better to Give Than Receive,” about a married couple that exchanges unequal friendship gifts with a bachelor pal and how they balance the value of their gifts, which happen to be a house in Malibu and a fruitcake.

Among the 30 to 40 short sketches in the anthology, the troupe will also offer “some serious pieces” such as “Mugger Friend.” It revolves around two former college buddies and veers between “funny and sober” during an unexpected meeting, she said.

No reflections on the ‘80s could avoid the subject of “safe sex,” of course. Fractured Mirror will ponder the issue with a song, “Oh Baby,” about two people on a first date and what happens when they try to consummate their relationship. (The date rapidly deteriorates into something like a medical appointment.)

In addition, the troupe will present staples favored by die-hard fans, including “Crazy Ted’s Cardboard Emporium” (a sales pitch on a yuppified theme of homelessness), “Love Doll” (for a different kind of baby boomer) and “Veg-O-Matic” (for baby-sitters with a problem child).

“If we don’t do ‘Crazy Ted,’ for instance, we get complaints,” Burson said.

Fractured Mirror has been doing new shows at L.P.R. Dinner Theatre on alternate Sundays since the beginning of the year. Sunday’s offering will be the last show of 1989, thus the early recap of both the year and the decade.

The six-person troupe will take December off to create new material, Burson said, and will be back on the boards in January.

Members of Fractured Mirror are Bob Ferrera, who writes most of the material, Vanessa Thomas, Neal Fugate, Timothy P. Thorn, Stephanie Thomas and Burson.

Show time for “The Best of Fractured Mirror” is 8 p.m. Sunday at L.P.R. Dinner Theatre, 15732 D Tustin Village Way, Tustin. Admission: $5. (714) 835-9611.