IT’S taken seven years for Conor McPherson’s “Port Authority” to make it to these shores, and now we know why. These three interwoven monologues seem altogether minor compared with his more fleshed-out and powerful plays, “Shining City” and “The Seafarer.”

Which is not to say that this Atlantic Theater Company production doesn’t have its rewards, namely the sterling performances by Jim Norton (repeating his original Dublin and London turns), Brian d’Arcy James and John Gallagher Jr. (“Spring Awakening”).

Performing on a set featuring a long wooden bench and glaring fluorescent lights, the actors alternate brief spoken turns in this 90-minute one-act. They play three generations of Dubliners: the elderly Joe (Norton), living an isolated existence in an old-age home; the middle-age Dermot (D’Arcy James), whose mediocre career is briefly alleviated by a case of mistaken identity; and Kevin (Gallagher), who experiences first love, only to see it fall away.

The lives of these three losers are only tenuously connected in the sprawling narrative, which takes considerable attention to discern. Despite McPherson’s typically incisive characterizations and pungent language, the wordy proceedings make little dramatic impact.

Under the direction of the stylishly named Henry Wishcamper, the actors beautifully evoke their characters’ quiet despair.

Norton, last seen here in “The Seafarer,” expertly portrays Joe’s truculence; Gallagher skillfully conveys the young man’s youthful energy and existential aimlessness; and James, whose dramatic range seems ever-growing, embodies Dermot’s emotional and physical dissipation to perfection.

PORT AUTHORITY
Atlantic Theater Company, 336 W. 20th St.; (212) 279-4200. Through June 22.