Photo courtesy of Performance Network

While writing about local theater highlights at the end of each year, I’ve sometimes titled a technical category as, “Sets that made me want to pack my bags and move in.”

Performance Network’s new production of Conor McPherson’s “The Seafarer” would earn the opposite title: a set that I would never, ever want to imagine living in.

And that’s precisely as it should be. For “Seafarer”’s story unfolds in a filthy North Dublin residence belonging to Richard (Hugh Maguire) - a self-absorbed, blustery alcoholic who seems to keep a wayward house for perpetually drunk male friends. (Imagine a low-end fraternity house for adrift, middle-aged Irish men and you’re pretty well there.)

Because Richard accidentally blinded himself on a recent bender, his brother Sharky (Aaron H. Alpern) has arrived to help out. When Richard invites friends over on Christmas Eve to play cards, a sinister, smartly-dressed stranger named Mr. Lockhart (Richard McWilliams) tags along and makes it clear to Sharky that, in his case specifically, the game’s stakes couldn’t be higher.

The men’s standards for cleanliness - well, they couldn’t be lower. (At one point, Ivan, played by Keith Allan Kalinowski, simply dumps some leftover tea onto an area rug instead of walking a few steps to the sink.) This is one source of the play’s wickedly sharp humor, as is the boastful nature of these profoundly un-self-aware men.

Indeed, Richard, after Sharky’s been essentially waiting on him hand and foot, complains to his friends that Sharky is such a mess that Richard isn’t sure about who is taking care of whom - strong evidence that Richard is blind in more ways than one. Ivan is, too, having lost his glasses while also claiming he only stayed a long time at a nearby pub because people were buying him Christmas pints, and he “couldn’t even see who they were to say ‘no.’”

Director Malcolm Tulip and his terrific ensemble manage to make the most of both the play’s comic opportunities and its more haunting moments (aided by Rob Murphy’s ghost-story lighting). Perhaps none is more searing than McWilliams’ delivery of a speech about what existence is like in hell - a monologue that will chill the bones of even the most strident non-believer.

Maguire establishes Richard as a larger-than-life blowhard through his movements and posture as much as through his words; and in the play’s critical moment, Maguire subtly acknowledges that Richard understands all too well that Sharky is all he really has in the world. Meanwhile, Kalinowski and Joel Mitchell (Nicky) are hilarious as the men who have women and children in their lives but still can’t resist the pull of Richard’s responsibility-repellant rat’s nest.

But Alpern is ultimately the show’s anchor, and he does marvelous work conveying the loneliness, guilt, and pain the character bears while battling to honor family obligations and change the dead-end trajectory of his life. Sharky is the only man of the lot who seems genuinely interested in pursuing a new path, and because Alpern makes the character sympathetic and genuine, we root for him to have that chance.

Vincent Mountain’s set design, paired with Michelle Bisbee’s props, powerfully evokes both pity and disgust - which is to say, they did their jobs well. An impressive sense of depth (you see the kitchen, including appliances, off the main room, as well as a staircase with a small landing) allows you to feel that you’re really looking in on someone’s home. And costume designer Christianne Myers’ effectively outfits the characters in dress-for-no-success comfort, since they go on long drunks and wear the same clothes for days (except, notably, Sharky, who’s appearance is neater if not necessarily dressy). And Ivan’s knit hat, with its silly little pom-pom, speaks volumes about the men’s arrested development.

Yes, there were occasional, small lapses in the characters’ Irish dialect on opening night; and for some reason, the show stopped dead briefly in the first act, as Sharky discussed a bus accident. (Plus, did the Network deliberately crank up the air conditioning to shiver us back into a Christmas Eve state of mind?)

But if you set your sails toward “The Seafarer,” my guess is that you’ll be more than satisfied with your voyage.

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.