EDGE San Francisco

Atmosphere that can be captured in a novel can all too easily evaporate when released on a stage. After seeing Edna O’Brien’s Tir na nOg (aka Land of Youth), her adaptation of one of her first novels, I was reminded of a long-forgotten children’s book from my own youth. In it, a boy spends one summer’s day collecting items that to him smell of summer - flowers, grass clippings, etc. - and seals them in a jar. Then comes winter, and while he lays sick in bed, he takes out the jar, and under the covers, opens it and for a brief moment is engulfed again in summer’s glow.

It’s not an exact analogy, but the items in the jar could be likened to a novel’s plot, the hardware, if you will, but the magic comes from the spiritual aroma they are able to emit in the moment. The plot itself of the Magic’s world-premiere production, adapted from O’Brien’s 1960 novel The Country Girls, is not in itself particularly bracing. Two teenaged friends leave rural Ireland for big-city adventures of 1950s Dublin. There are men, heartbreak, and lessons learned.

But the humanity and lyricism that animate this plot on the page are hard to find in the stage adaptation, which expends much of its energy in laying down the hardware, and can’t find a consistent way to let loose the ephemeral magic for which the plot is mainly a place-holder. Perhaps director Chris Smith recognized this weakness, for he engaged Riverdance co-choreographer Jean Butler as associate director and choreographer. But the occasional ensemble dances, ungainly performed, can feel like artificial exclamation points. Another rather heavy-handed enhancement is the omnipresence of a presumably mystic beggar woman (Deborah Black) who provides more punctuation with a bit of song here and there.

As the two friends on a journey, Allison Jean White is perfectly pleasant as level-headed Kate while Summer Serafin brings an enlivening energy to her role as the hedonistic Baba. The rest of the cast plays multiple roles to satisfactory, if not highly memorable, effect.

A few years back, the Magic Theatre found success with the world premiere of Triptych , O’Brien’s first work written expressly for the stage. In that play, O’Brien was able to conquer the exigencies of a work to be performed. But with Tir na nOg, an attempt to adapt a work meant to be read into a new medium, O’Brien has stubbed her tOe.

Tir na nOg will run at the Magic Theatre through March 23. Tickets are $20-$45. Call 441-8822 or go to www.magictheatre.org.