Renaissance Theaterworks' production of "Skin Tight" offers a barely skin-deep version of a passionless marriage that concludes in old age and death.

Leah Dutchin and Braden Moran make their Renaissance Theaterworks' debuts in the roles of Tom and Elizabeth. Dutchin creates a strong yet playful female character, bringing to life the bitter separation from her child as well as the uncertainty of a woman who's sent her man off to war.

Offsetting Dutchin is the tough yet quiet husband, played by the skillful Moran. Together they combine monologues and rounds of choreographed wrestling into a memoir of their marriage and life together. They share joys and sorrows, fears from their first sexual experience as well as tensions resulting from Tom's absence in time of war.

Based on Dennis Glover's poem "The Magpies," "Skin Tight" explores love in the fields of a New Zealand farm. The story is played out in a sparse setting, with a pale wrestling mat symbolizing many things, including a bed. Upstage of the audience is a large metal tub filled with water, a few apples, and eventually Elizabeth as Tom washes her dead body. Next to the tub sit two water pails that serve as chairs throughout the performance.

The relatively short show, directed by Laura Gordon, bears no concrete plot. Tom and Elizabeth are seen in their prime age, speak from their oldest age, and explore events from their lifetime together. Dutchin and Moran rarely adapt their manner to the appropriate age about which they are speaking. Their wrestling scenes are blatantly choreographed and appear to have no purpose except to possibly insinuate lovemaking. They pull their memories out of nowhere, with no props, actions or conversation that offer clues into the minds of the characters.

One can vaguely sense Elizabeth's heartache and emptiness when Tom is at war, her anxiety when other men begin to come home and the need to prove she won't miss him that drove her to have an affair. Brief flashes of imagery occur when the couple speaks of their farm and the ache of selling it, and the mention of an estranged daughter leads the audience to unanswered questions.

It is the final scene that truly grabs the audience. Elizabeth hints throughout the show that she "has to go" and in the final scene she is finally able to let go and embrace her death. The audience does not know what she dies from, but in her final scene the only thing that matters is the love that exists between Tom and Elizabeth.

The soft embrace of flesh upon flesh, the intimate gesture of his bathing her as she dies, and the silence of the song they once sang together bring to life the love that endured years of struggle, strife, sorrow, separation and eventually joy.

Renaissance Theaterworks' "Skin Tight" runs Thursdays through Sundays until Nov. 14 at the Off-Broadway Theatre, 342 N. Water St. Call the box office at 278-0765 or go to www.r-t-w.com for tickets and show times.

Grade: C