Billed as "an exchange of literary blows'', `The Battle of the Sexes' proved to be not so much a ringside seat at verbal fisticuffs as an object lesson in the exquisite range and beauty of the English language and the awesome craftsmanship of those who put it to best use.

Indeed, the more the evening unfolded, the more one became aware of just how bereft most of today's writers and users of English are.

Certainly, there was a compelling lesson to be learned from the fine literary selections so expertly portrayed by British husband and wife team Timothy West and Prunella Scales. Just how poets, playwrights and authors of different ages and eras were able to draw word portraits of such clarity and vividness with words was compelling. That they did so without any of the baseness or profanity which laces much of today's work made the experience all the more profound.

It was into an atmosphere charged with the anticipation of excellence that Miss Scales and Mr. West sailed at City Hall, and despite Miss Scales battling influenza, they handsomely upheld the old theatrical adage, "The show must go on''. But it takes more than good, old British stoicism to overcome physical infirmity. With a minimum of stage furniture, and but two stemmed water goblets as props, the duo instead used their beautifully trained voices and years of acting experience to bring to potent life the words they read.

As is so often the case in British theatre, it was the quality of elegant understatement which lent enchantment to this rewarding event. Theatregoers were taken on a journey through the annals of good literature, where the exploration of love, as seen through the eyes of both sexes, was done with passion, wit and grace.

Eschewing extravagant costumes and movement, the couple used subtle inflection, varying accents, simple gestures, and a range of facial expressions to ice the verbal cake -- with delicious results. Setting the tone for what followed, the evening began with an amusing, thesaurial definition of Man and Woman. Whereas words such as "he-man, cave man, stallion, tom-cat, head of the family, virile, rake, philanderer and injured husband'' defined His Nibs, "moll, broad, fair/weaker sex, distaff side, housewife, squaw, spinster, hen, slut, cow, shrew, minx, baggage, tart,'' and "little bit of fluff'' were among those summing up Herself.

Thereafter, the well-balanced programme of poetry, excerpts from plays and essays presented a host of thought-provoking views, by authors near-ancient to modern, on affairs of the heart.

Unrequited love, virginity, artful romancing, futile pursuit, marriage, infidelity, men's liberation, and even the agony of parting through death were all visited in immortal works by such diverse authors as Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, G.K. Chesterton, J.B. Priestley, Noel Coward, and Edward Albee.

At such a feast it is hard to select a favourite course since there was so much to savour, but a few which stand out include the view of marriage by Rev.

Sidney Smith, who lived from 1772 to 1845: "Marriage is like a pair of shears,'' he said. "So joined that they cannot be separated, apart moving in separate directions, yet always punishing anyone who comes between them.'' Another was the verbal tennis match where mixed double standards were batted back and forth between a conventional husband and his liberal-minded wife.

What started with a frank admission of having lied about the number of men with whom she had had sex eventually strayed into a mathematical discourse yielding a sum total of three and two-fifths men per year.

"How the hell do you get screwed by two-fifths of a man?'' her enraged husband demanded.

Here, as elsewhere, the actors' sense of comic timing was excellent.

Surprise came in the form of an insightful poem on marriage, the style and tenderness of which one would not have associated with its author, whom Miss Scales revealed to be the acerbic Noel Coward.

Dora Carrington's letter to Lytton Strachey in May, 1921 portrayed the anguish of a woman hopelessly in love with the handsome, homosexual Strachey and cognisant that there could be no happy ending.

The excerpt from Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf'' not only captured the vapidity of a marriage sodden with alcohol and sarcasm, but also allowed the actors to slip into American accents easily.

Indeed, the judicious use of regional accents elsewhere in the show were handled with equal facility, adding authenticity to the richness of top-notch performances.

If "The Battle of the Sexes'' saw no clear winners or losers, at least the contestants were well matched. Miss Scales and Mr. West could not have portrayed the vicissitudes of love any better, and the outcome was a resounding victory for theatre at its best.