THREE compelling new Irish theater productions will vie for your attention this month. At the Irish Center in Long Island City this weekend you'll have the chance to catch Living Quarters, a rarely performed gem by Ireland's most accomplished living playwright Brian Friel.

Produced by PJM Productions, who presented a lively and memorable production of Juno and the Paycock at the same venue back in January, Living Quarters was first performed at Dublin's Abbey Theatre in 1977.

Based loosely on the Phaedra myth, the play is set in Co. Donegal where a returning war hero's celebrations are ruined by the discovery of his young wife's infidelity with a much younger man while he was off rescuing his comrades from a Middle Eastern siege.

This being a Friel play, the playwright is not terrifically interested in the frankly understandable infidelities of the wife or her young lover. Rather, he focuses his attention on the psychological profile of a man whose pursuit of glory and adventure have blinded him to the harsh consequences that were evident all around him.

As the story progresses with a horrifying inevitability toward a tragic outcome, Friel occasionally halts the action to assess the choices made by his deluded protagonist. Some have claimed that this theatrical device diminishes the plays power, but others see the power of a sorrowful tale told at arms length.

Director Patrick Mahoney has assembled a talented cast that includes Matt McAlister, Diana Harkin, Jo Kinsella, Charlie Donnelly and Christopher Donoghue. Performances will be held on Saturday, May 31 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, June 1 at 4 p.m. The New York Irish Center is located at 10-40 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City. For tickets (which include a hot buffet, beverages and a raffle) call 718-482-0909.

In New York at the Atlantic Theatre, celebrated Irish playwright Conor McPherson unveils another series of sorrowful monologues featuring middle aged - or about to be - men whose lives have escaped them in Port Authority.

Told with touching hesitation and restrained passion by the three Irish men of various ages, who share the same seaside bench but never actually communicate with each other, it's another catalogue of quiet desperation from a writer who frequently navigates these lonely backwaters.

The men's striking inability to communicate, their anxiety surrounding communication, the unforeseen consequences of communication and then their blanket refusal to communicate at all are at the heart of almost all of McPherson's mournful works. In Port Authority he places three completely unremarkable men on stage and invites us to consider what's remarkable about them.

Thematically, we're in familiar territory too. The concerns of the Irish Catholic male in all his gruff stoicism are under the microscope yet again. And its no surprise the outcome is never in doubt.

Drink dulls the sharp edges, a studied dourness papers over all the emotional cracks before they become too threatening, and the invisible and insuperable wall separating the three ages of Irish manhood never breaks down. They neither consult nor advise each other, they never even acknowledge each other's presence.

There's no question that McPherson can write tragedies. His male characters literally embody them. The women in his plays are almost always conduits to the real world of expansiveness and connection. Without them these men fall right back into terrifying emotional wastelands of their devising.

Port Authority is playing at the Atlantic Theatre, 336 West 20th Street. For tickets call 212-279-4200.

Former Irish heavyweight boxer Seamus McDonagh will star in a one night only revival performance of the off-Broadway play, Kid Shamrock by Bobby Cassidy Junior at the aforementioned Irish Center in Long Island City on Friday, June 13 at 8 p.m.

Boxing, like theatre, is a spectator sport and there may be no greater drama than a heavyweight showdown. McDonagh, who fought Evander Holyfield in 1990, is quite familiar with both settings, the ring and the stage.

Kid Shamrock, written by Irish American playwright Cassidy, is based on the life and career of his famous father, the one-time middleweight and light heavyweight contender, Irish Bobby Cassidy.

The play depicts the trailblazing career of Kid Shamrock, and one of its poignant themes is the fighter's long struggle with alcohol, a topic in which both Cassidy Senior and McDonagh can relate. For tickets call 718-482-0909.