Michael Burnham and Michael Shooner are soundin' like a “foin coupla fellas” these days.

        Starting Thursday, they'll be onstage at Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival in the regional premiere of the London and New York hit The Weir.

        They, along with Nick Rose and Brian Isaac Phillips, will while away telling ghost stories on a dark and stormy evening in a pub in Ireland's back of beyond. As the gents try to impress an attractive Dubliner (Amy Hutchins), the tales become more and more chilling.

        These days, the entire Weir cast is speaking Irish dialect, 24-7.

IF YOU GO

What: The Weir     When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through Oct. 29     Where: Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, 719 Race St.     Tickets: $18, students and seniors $13     Phone: 381-2273

        “The theory is if we keep doing it, it will become second nature,” Mr. Burnham explains dryly. “People will say, "that's artificial, but they do it all the time.'”

        Actually, they don't sound artificial. The actors received pages and pages of instructions from dialogue coach Rocco Dal Vera.

        The instructions are individual because even though most of the characters were born in the same small town, their lives have carried them elsewhere, so there are layerings of dialects that would delight Henry Higgins and Col. Pickering.

        Shakespeare Festival fans are familiar with the other three members of the Weir ensemble — all members of the CSF acting company. Being introduced to the work of guest artists Mr. Burnham and Mr. Shooner promises a treat.

        Mr. Burnham, on faculty at University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, hasn't been onstage for a dozen years.

        Mr. Shooner, a graduate of Cincinnati's defunct Edgecliff College, returned to town a couple of years ago to found the New Edgecliff Theater and dazzle audiences in shows including last year's Woolgather.

        Mr. Burnham was lured back by The Weir director (and festival artistic director), Jasson Minadakis. Mr. Burnham has directed for CSF and has offered friendly advice along the way.

        When Mr. Minadakis decided to venture from the festival's full-time classics calendar, “he asked me to look at the play, and I found it fascinating. He asked me whether I'd like to play Jack, and my ego went whoop.”

        Mr. Shooner, one of the best actors based in Cincinnati, got to say yes to his guest stint “almost through happenstance.” New Edgecliff was planning a show for the same dates as The Weir. Then things were shuffled “and a whole chunk of time opened.”

        Even so, New Edgecliff business stays front and center. when Mr. Shooner isn't learning lines, he's writing grant proposals.

        “I was excited and intimidated,” Mr. Shooner says about taking the role. “It's not Darby O'Gill. It's not Lucky Charms.

        “The Irish speak more laterally,” Mr. Shooner explains with an engaging lilt. “It's breathy. They use more air.”

        “Splashy, too,” inserts Mr. Burnham. “The "t' sounds almost like "s'.” He demonstrates.

        “And they form their words further forward, not quite nasal, but not in back the way we do. It sounds a little like Popeye to me, the way the "r's are tapped, not rolled.” He demonstrates.

        All the actors then made all their sounds for Mr. Dal Vera. “He was kind,” says Mr. Burnham. “He kept saying "spot on,'”Mr. Shooner says .

        Compounding the challenge, “Americans speak at about 80 to 90 words a minute; the Irish speak at about 170 words a minute,” sighs Mr. Shooner.

        “As actors, that's causing the most trouble,” Mr. Burnham ruminates. “Doing it and being understood from a distance.”

        Now what about those ghosts?

        “If you'd asked me that before I started playing this character, I don't know what I would have said,” Mr. Burnham says. “There are things that happen.”

        Talk during rehearsal breaks has been drifting toward the supernatural.

        Everybody loves a ghost story, they agree.

        “You can't get any closer than when you're sitting around a fire,” Mr. Burnham says. “Ghost stories put everyone in the same community. It's wonderful to be scared.”

        The cast has been scaring each other. “Oh, yeah,” they say in unison. The Weir, Mr. Burnham suggests, “in a way is about when should you tell a ghost story? It becomes more about what the stories say about each other.”

        “As many times as I hear these lines, every time a different image jumps out,” says Mr. Shooner. Which, says Mr. Burnham, is just as it should be. As an actor “it's your job to believe.”

        As for believing off-stage, “The old Edgecliff — that had a ghostly presence,” Mr. Burnham notes.

        “In the Weir I'm playing a character who, in a visceral sense, knows it's true but intellectually won't believe it. I'm kind of like that,” Mr. Shooner says, laughing.

        Then he adds, “There was a ghost there. I heard voices in the Green Room, on the other side of the wall. I knew no one was there. It sounded like two or three people speaking, but I couldn't tell what they were saying.”

        Mr. Burnham has some similar stories about the CCM theater department's former home, Wilson Hall. “It made noises.”

        He grins. “When you leave a theater, you leave a light on. It's called a ghost light for a reason.”

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