One should approach a Shakespeare play as one might approach a romantic dinner date.

If it’s good, the rewards are great. You’ll find yourself smiling without trying to, hanging on every word of the cumbersome dialogue and you’ll leave feeling emotionally and intellectually renewed. A three-hour comedy will fly by with ease.

If, on the other hand, the production is lacking, three hours with the Bard will become an exercise in competitive sitting. Ghost Light Theatricals’ fall production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure is a good date.

For one, Shakespeare is sexy, and director Beth Raas knows it. From the sex addict and his “overdone” wife to the sensual, sometimes writhing choreography, the production is not afraid to “go there.”

Shakespeare is also funny. Incredibly funny. The trick is finding a way to modernize the delivery of the script to make the jokes readily relatable. Evan Woltz as Elbow, the floundering, frustrated constable, and Justin Emerick’s schmoozing Claudio are two fine examples. Their mannerisms and demeanors show the audience the jokes rather than simply retelling them.

However, Measure for Measure is a peculiar Shakespearean comedy in that its ultimate success depends not on the vigor with which it tickles the funny bone, but rather the way it manages to tickle the brain as well.

The premise is relatively simple. Sometime long ago in Vienna, though it hardly matters where or when, a duke decides to leave his territory under the rule of the morally constipated Angelo. The freshly power-whipped Angelo makes fornication punishable by death. When the law claims its first victim, the victim’s sister entreats Angelo to spare her brother. The ruler then decides to fornicate with her.

All the while and unbeknownst to any, Duke Vincentio has, in the guise of a friar, returned to watch and, more often than not, influence the lives, loves and laws at stake in an almost sick game of puppeteering. Here Shakespeare leaves the tone open for interpretation; the duke, acting as the proverbial hand of fate in his friar dress, can be seen as a prankster serving up trouble for his own entertainment or as a teacher of the dangers of meddling power.

This is the only soft point of the production, as Duke Vincentio, played by John-Paul Wilson, doesn’t seem to fall definitively to either side of the ethical divide.

The philosophical potency of the play therefore rests delicately on the shoulders of the villainous Angelo. David van Wert’s perfectly detestable representation of the zealous, overly-righteous duke-for-a-day stands as a solid cornerstone for the play’s more serious philosophical intentions. Actually, he’s kind of scary.

The overall production is admittedly small in scale, but hardly without power. The set and costumes are simple to the point of discretion, relying on the actors and their identity with their respective characters.

To this end, it is a fantastic production.

Reach reporter Trevor Pendras at arts@dailyuw.com.