The biggest pot of the night sits on the green felt table, and the game is five card draw.

He has a six and seven and nine and 10 of clubs. When the dealer asks how many cards he wants to draw, he throws just one card away.

Milwaukee’s theater community has its own version of that man who draws to an inside straight flush: Viswa Subbaraman, the artistic director at Skylight Music Theatre.

The latest toss of the dice (to mix metaphors) is the staging of "The Skylight Ring" which opened Friday night.

Subbaraman is the creative force who has brought such unusual and wonderful productions as "El Cimarron" and this year’s "Snow Dragon" to Milwaukee, exposing audiences to new and exciting forms of theater and music.

"The Skylight Ring" may well be the most ambitious attempt yet.

The two hour and something production is based on the four-opera, 18-hour work by Richard Wagner – the famed German composer who revolutionized the world of opera by composing works where the music was used to carry the story, with the story being the most vital part of a production.

Subbaraman paired with singer and director Daniel Brylow to create this production, and the results are fascinating. It is, without a doubt, one of the most intriguing performances I’ve seen this season.

Wagner’s opera is based on Norse legendary sagas and are full of bluster and intense dramatic verve.

At the heart of the story is a ring that gives absolute power to the one who wears it. All the wearer has to do is renounce love for power, and he is good to go.

"Ring" in this retelling has a strong vein of comedy that grows throughout the performance until there is a lot of laughter once we reach the middle of the second act.

The centerpiece of the story is Alberich, played by Robert Frankenberry, who also acted as music director. He narrates a tale that includes mermaids, maidens, kings and queens, giants, valley girls, sweethearts, an incestuous affair between brother and sister twins, an evil old woman, a dragon, gods and goddesses, a fortune teller, a scheming blacksmith, and two ravens named Thought and Memory.

Frankenberry is the pianist as well, providing the accompaniment for himself and a trio of wonderful singers: baritone Tim Rebers, soprano Erin Sura and mezzo Colleen Brooks.

All of the players in this production can sing beautifully, but it’s their acting chops that get the most rigorous workout here.

The style created by Brylow is varied and stylized. Nobody is going for realism here. The entire story is a fantasy, and like all good fantasies, this one has its mysteries and its drama but there is also the addition of funny.

When Brooks spends the second act as Siegfried, the male twin who fell in love with his sister, she creates a whirlwind of a character who mixes contemporary dialogue with a classical style that ends up being very funny. She is an absolute riot.

Perhaps the most eloquent part of this production is the verse that Frankenberry uses throughout most of the second act. Brylow has created a precise and inventive verse that is both meaningful and funny.

"Ring" reminded me a little of a steam engine leaving a loading dock. It started out chugging along but once it got up its head of steam, we all had to hold on for dear life.

Subbaraman, perhaps more than anyone in Milwaukee theater with the exception of Dale Gutzman at Off the Wall, gives audiences a chance to stretch their minds. The familiar is wonderful and safe, but the new and unusual can be exciting and even a bit dangerous.

When Subbaraman picks up that one card he drew, he’s going to find the eight of clubs, and the pot goes to him.

"The Skylight Ring" runs through June 7. Information on showtimes and tickets are available here.