When I first moved to Memphis from Florida, I arrived in a city of wonderful accents. I gleefully began studying them, learning that there was no such thing as a generic "Southern" accent.

People from North Mississippi sounded different than people from West Arkansas. I also learned that in Memphis, two children living under the same roof can grow up sounding completely different.

Rory Dale

Ron Gephart, Jim Palmer and Michael Gravois cruise a wave of emotions at Circuit.

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One would think that this knowledge of variable accent acquisition would have aided my viewing of "The Seafarer" at Circuit Playhouse, a darkly comic play set on a Christmas Eve in Dublin, Ireland.

Certain plays are written in dialect or, at least, you expect them to be spoken with one. And especially when the lines are peppered with the exorbitant profanity and regional vernacular that writer Conor McPherson uses in his play to evoke the lives of hardscrabble, working-class Dubliners whose salty repartee I have experienced first-hand, the Irish accent seems key to creating an aura of naturalism.

I cannot admit to have understood much of the first 30 minutes of "The Seafarer," as my ears were adjusting to the panoply of accents that carried us from the American Midwest to the milky shores of Frosted Lucky Charms. But little happens in the first part anyway. Three men meet in a basement the day before Christmas. One is blind. All are heavy drinkers.

There are speeches and reveries that might sound interesting coming from a good Irish storyteller. Not so much from a storyteller of indeterminate origin.

Eventually, a figure in a dark suit arrives and the show starts in earnest. The five gentlemen begin an all-night poker game fueled by hard liquor, and paused occasionally so the men can chase off winos in the alley. For one of the men, the stakes are supernaturally high, as the black-suited stranger hoping to beat him is not from this earth.

It's a drama that, like a real poker game, should be played close to the vest, not grandiose and declamatory but understated and as realistic as possible. Director Robert Hetherington drops the reins on his cast, and they bumble forward, trying to squeeze the inevitable dram of sweetness from this adult-themed story about an unlikely Christmas miracle.

"The Seafarer," however, ends up being long and uneven. It's a play that needs to be soaked in ambiance: dark, gritty, intense, and sometimes funny. Instead, "The Seafarer" is awash in so many accents that it's hard to tell where it came from or where it's going.

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"The Seafarer"

Performances at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 20 at Circuit Playhouse, 1705 Poplar Ave. Tickets are $20-$30. Call 726-4656.

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