'HONOUR': STANDARD HEARTBREAK, SUPERB ACTING.

Byline: Katherine Karlin Correspondent

IT WOULD BE giving away little to reveal that by the end of Joanna Murray-Smith's ``Honour'' one man will discover the value of lasting love, one woman will become aware of her own need for growth, and a wife will emerge from the wreckage of her marriage sadder, stronger and - need we say it? - empowered.

So little does this play stray from the movie-of-the-week formula we can predict the entire arc within the first few moments. The couple in question are Gus, a newspaper columnist who is also a kind of public intellectual, and his wife, a retired poet. These cerebral occupations allow Murray-Smith to create a sophisticated fantasyland where characters trade quips about Tina Brown and determinism even as their hearts are breaking.

But what elevates ``Honour'' above its unsurprising examination of marriage is Andrew J. Robinson's rich production and the closely observed performances. Susan Sullivan plays the betrayed wife, Honor (yes, the title, with a slight spelling change, doubles as a virtue and a proper name) as a fiercely intelligent woman trying to hold herself together with barbed wire.

When her husband announces that he's leaving, she flutters her hands in front of her face as if she were swatting mosquitoes. Sullivan's performance is physical and idiosyncratic, and greatly complemented by Michele K. Short's understated costume design; even in the depths of despair, Honor is the kind of woman who coordinates her shoes and slacks.

Her rival, an ambitious writer named Claudia, wields her brain and her body to plow ahead. This could be a heartless role, but Kirsten Potter is an offbeat actress who never does quite what we expect. Robert Foxworth, who alternates in the role of Gus with Granville Van Dusen, provides the depth needed to make the man sympathetic. As the couple's unhappy daughter, Becky Wahlstrom is saddled with lines like, ``Don't let me feel the shiver of aloneness,'' and never quite communicates the rage her character is supposed to feel.

Like the performers, Stephanie Kerley Schwartz's off-kilter set takes a familiar situation and gives it a spin of eccentricity.

HONOUR - Two and one half stars

Where: Matrix Theatre Company, 7657 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday; through Nov. 6.

Tickets: $20 to $25. Call [phone].

In a nutshell: Nuanced performances in search of more original material.