DREAMS OF IRELAND.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

If you're dealing with John Mahoney, you almost need an atlas.

The 60-year old actor - best-known as Frasier Crane's decidedly non- snooty father Martin on the NBC series ``Frasier'' - was born in England, lives in Chicago and dreams of Ireland. He also spends half the year in Los Angeles filming a TV series in which he plays a retired police detective who lives in Seattle.

Bits of all these regions - well, OK, not Seattle - will converge in Westwood beginning tonight when Mahoney makes his L.A. stage debut in Conor McPherson's ``The Weir'' at the Geffen Playhouse.

From Chicago comes director Randall Arney, the former artistic director at Chicago's famed Steppenwolf Theatre Company where Mahoney is an ensemble member and where he works at least once a year. Fellow cast member Francis Guinan is another Steppenwolf company with whom Mahoney has shared the stage in the past.

From Ireland comes the play itself, McPherson's much-produced tale of four gents in a cozy Irish tavern spinning ghostly tales to impress Valerie, a comely and slightly mysterious new lady from Dublin. Not much happens plot-wise in ``The Weir''; the joy in the play is in the language and storytelling.

``I think theater is an oral tradition, and you usually find beautiful language,'' says Mahoney during a dinner break at the Geffen. ``The Irish could read the phone book and make it sound like poetry.''

It's a skill the actor himself doesn't claim to possess. Despite his heritage and a love of literature, Mahoney, a former English teacher, isn't a particularly gifted raconteur.

But he's been learning. For all ``The Weir'' cast members - each with an eerie tale to learn - the production has been something of what Mahoney calls a ``raconteur internship.''

``As a story teller, you already know where the end of the story is, where you're going. It's important not to shape the beginning with knowledge of the end,'' says director Arney. ``The goal is to put the listener in the place where you were at before you knew the end. There's a slightly different dynamic.''

Of course, if ``Weir-mania'' keeps up, people in the audience will know these stories. Though this is its Los Angeles premiere, McPherson's 1997 play will be produced 11 times in regional theaters throughout the country during the 2000-01 theatrical season, making it the season's fourth-most-popular offering. Throw in another seven productions of Martin McDonagh's ``The Beauty Queen of Leenane,'' and you can see why everyone's talking about a renaissance in Irish drama.

After a stint doing Eugene O'Neill's tragic marathon ``Long Day's Journey Into Night'' in Chicago and Gallway, Ireland last year, Mahoney says any proliferation of Irish plays is hardly blarney. ``There's something about the Irish - whether it's Beckett or Conor McPherson or Eugene O'Neil - their emotions are so schizophrenic. You find yourself sobbing in the middle of a laugh or laughing in the middle of a dark, dark moment,'' says Mahoney.

``If I didn't live in Chicago, I'd live in Ireland. When I get through with 'Frasier,' I'm going to work a lot less and spend a lot more time over there.''

That course of action would be film and TV's loss. A well-known character actor since the early '80s, Mahoney gained notice as Olympia Dukakis' suitor in ``Moonstruck,'' as a dissolute Faulkner-esque writer in the Coen brothers' ``Barton Fink'' and as countless doctors, attorneys and cops. He'll lend his voice to the upcoming Disney animated film ``Atlantis'' due in theaters this summer.

But as much as ``Frasier'' and his various films take up his time, Mahoney always finds a way back to the stage in Chicago, New York or overseas. He won a Tony award as the sad-sack songwriter in John Guare's ``The House of Blue Leaves'' and performed in Steppenwolf's production of ``The Man Who Came to Dinner'' both in Chicago and in London.

Going ``back to the stage''? Mahoney insists he's never left.

``I enjoy doing film and TV, but basically you're acting to a camera,'' says Mahoney. ``There's just something exciting about the language of the play combined with the energy that just pours off from the audience onto the actors on stage. There's nothing like it.''

``The Weir'' has long been on his ``to do'' list. Twice he was offered the chance to act in a production - at Steppenwolf and in New York - and twice his ``Frasier'' commitments forced him to pass. So when Arney, who was programming his first season as artistic director of the Geffen, asked Mahoney if there was anything he'd be interested in performing, Mahoney had a quick answer.

Arney, who hadn't seen or read the play, looked it over and gave it a thumbs-up.

``I really saw what John saw,'' said Arney, who is directing at the Geffen for the first time since he brought the long-running Steve Martin play ``Picasso at the Lapin Agile'' to what was then called the Westwood Playhouse. ``It's such a wonderfully soulful piece. I love its themes of the restorative and redemptive power of storytelling. Which is what we do anyway.''

``The Weir'' is the first time Mahoney has acted in a play during a period when ``Frasier'' wasn't on summer hiatus. That meant some lengthy work days for Mahoney, with days spent filming and nights rehearsing. (``The West Wing's'' John Spencer struck a similar deal to act in the Mark Taper Forum's production of ``Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine.'').

The ``Frasier'' team was certainly accommodating, says Mahoney, which isn't surprising since several of the show's cast members (including Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce) and directors routinely jump between stage and screen. Mahoney's scenes for the season's last week will be preshot so he can hoof it back to Chicago in time to start rehearsals for Steppenwolf's production of Michael Healey's ``The Drawer Boy.''

And keeping two schedules hasn't been onerous, says Mahoney. Better to spend his evenings pretending to be in a bar than the real thing.

``I get kind of bored out here in the evenings with nothing to do, to tell you the truth,'' he says. ``All my friends out here are married, and I don't want to be hanging around like a fifth wheel.

``Even before Randy and I talked, I had been thinking about doing something. I thought, 'A play, great. What a wonderful way to spend my evenings instead of sitting at home reading or going to bars.' ''

And though this is his first time on an L.A. stage, the experience certainly feels familiar. Despite the repeated claims that the Geffen's new administration isn't trying to turn the playhouse into ``Steppenwolf West,'' a production directed by Randall Arney comes with a lot of collaboration, says Mahoney.

Certainly, there are worse models to emulate than the company that helped launch the careers of such actors as John Malkovich, Joan Allen, Gary Sinise, Laurie Metcalf and Glenne Headly.

``The play itself is such an ensemble piece, which is how we built our theater,'' says Mahoney. ``And Randy's terrific. What you see on stage will eventually be his vision, but at the same time he's not the least bit shy about letting you collaborate in that vision. It's been very free- wheeling and loose. ''

Mahoney even unofficially helped out with casting, suggesting Lindsay Crouse - with whom he had worked on the upcoming independent feature ``Almost Salinas'' - to play Valerie.

``When they were throwing names around, I was the one who said Lindsay would be great,'' said Mahoney. ``I had mentioned it to her also, and her agent submitted her. The rest, as they say, is history.''

``THE WEIR''

Where: Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood.

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 4 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday; through March 11.

Tickets: $21 to $43. Call [phone].

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Photo: `If I didn't live in Chicago, I'd live in Ireland. When I get through with ``Frasier,'' I'm going to work a lot less and spend a lot more time over there.' John Mahoney