That's how it goes in Absence, a pointless, muddled play by Wendy Hammond, whose world premiere opened over the weekend at People's Light & Theatre Company in Malvern. It's not clear whether Absence, about a bumbling, turgid young Mormon man who becomes a pragmatic and life-changed spy, is about morality. Or why being a Mormon has much to do with it. Or even what anyone, at certain points, is really thinking or trying to tell us.

"Yes," says Peter to Mary, whom he marries, then leaves for long periods to go about work he cannot describe but expects her to blindly believe in. (She does. Until she doesn't, a reverse stance she acquires during intermission.) "There is something bothering me."

"Work?" Mary asks.

"Yes."

"What?"

"I can't tell you."

Or try this, in Act 2:

"Peter . . . what?" Mary asks.

"Nothing."

"It's not nothing! Tell me."

"No."

OK, so Peter can't talk about his work or even himself - but the playwright puts us in the same position as his wife, trying to buy into this man's cause without knowing what his cause is. A playwright can make us see a rich picture when the characters themselves see only little pieces. Hammond chooses a different and unfulfilling route. Worse, she forces tension into the dialogue: With much to do about nothing, she builds up little moments that aren't worth all the talk.

You could call Absence a love story, I suppose: It has only two onstage characters, Peter and Mary, wonderfully played by top-notch actors Greg Wood and Judith Lightfoot Clarke, whose performances save the evening. The marriage of their characters is the throughline of the play, which ends in a hail of emotion it doesn't earn.

Or maybe Absence has to do with the hole in Peter's middle that the couple oh-so-dramatically and oh-so-repeatedly refer to, which can be filled only when he lays eyes on Mary - a metaphor for . . . something, or maybe a questionable Saturday night pickup line.

Absence aspires to a historical overview set against one couple's lives. The play begins with Germany's surrender in World War II and ends in the early '90s, and director Ken Marini's production employs a montage of real news clips from that period - all tumult all the time. (You won't find the moon landing here.) And shame on the production for trivializing an iconic and horrific execution in Vietnam by including a two-second clip of it.

Absence

Presented by

People's Light & Theatre Company,

39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern, through Nov. 8.

Tickets: $29-$48.

Information: 610-644-3500 or www.peopleslight.org.