By  Eric Grunin

Be you merry, be you gay,
Be sure to heed what I do say
Clasp your cloak, for you know not the day
When the wind will blow your soul away
And though you wear a golden crown
The thunderclap may strike you down

Thus begins this production of King Lear, presented by Shakespeare's Globe at NYU's Skirball center. It's sung to us by the ensemble, who also play a variety of instruments from various centuries and locales, including accordions, drums, a modern flute and trombone, and an old valveless trumpet. We also heard a bellows-driven drone from time to time, used especially when a sense of quiet menace was called for; the Internet informs me this is a shruti box, a South Asian instrument which has lately gained some popularity in English folk circles.

I indulge in these peripheral details because they’re emblematic of the production’s eclectic approach. Directed by Bill Buckhurst, it’s meant for touring, portable, made for the outdoors, and therefore without lighting effects (house lights were left up). The set was simple and static, and props served multiple functions: what in one scene is a throne may be elsewhere a barricade or a stool. That this is a philosophical position as well as a practical one was made clear at the start when they held up a sign reading "two planks and a passion" (which sign itself was made of two planks). Even before we heard from Shakespeare himself, we knew to expect a production smart, resourceful, and thrifty.

This was not King Lear as star vehicle. Joseph Marcell played the title role without striving to impress us with his virtuosity, though it must be said that this reduced the scope of Lear's tragic fall, since he did not start as overwhelmingly regal. The supporting cast...but this is where we abruptly run into trouble.

There is such a thing as too much thrift, and doing Lear effectively with only eight players requires major rethinking of the material to avoid significantly diminishing the story's impact. It's reasonable to double Cordelia (Bethan Cullinane), with the Fool, but while Daniel Pirrie's Edmund made a strong impression, to have him double Oswald was a bad idea on several counts. First, Oswald is also a villain, so their inherent affect was too similar. Second, there is a significant scene where Goneril is talking to both men, which here had to be played for comedy, Pirrie dashing from one side to the other. This is a shame, as Oswald can and should make a distinct impression of his own (as Jeremy Bobb did in the Delacorte production this past summer).

Many other doublings created similar problems, though less drastic. Some of the blame, surprisingly, must be laid to the actor's failure to strongly differentiate their different characters. For example, Alex Mugnaioni changed from the Duke of Cornwall to Edgar's Mad Tom by removing his garments and revealing a mud-smeared torso, but the actor's posture, carriage, and speech rhythms changed hardly at all. The one exception was John Stahl, whose Duke of Albany was not only moved more youthfully than his Earl of Gloucester, he also had a broad (and character-appropriate) Scottish accent.

As a result, there were many moments where one was distracted for an instant, trying to deduce who had just entered, and all those instants piled together sapped energy from the narrative. I suspect that these actors have been touring this production for so long (it's been around the world) that they've simply gone a bit slack, as actors often do. Even the warring sisters Regan (Shanaya Rafaat) and Goneril (Gwendolen Chatfield) seemed less intense than one would expect. Bill Nash’s Earl of Kent was generally good, but hobbled by a lack of livelier scene partners.

'Extreme' doubling is sometimes used to give a fresh perspective on overfamiliar or difficult text. Fiasco did Cymbeline with only six players, Access Theater did Hamlet with four, and Alan Cumming did Macbeth mostly solo. In each of those cases it was clear that the doubling was taken as central to the presentation, while here it felt like mere frugality, a burden to be borne and laughed off.

It's hard to recommend this to a New York audience, as anyone with much interest in the play probably saw Langella at BAM (this past January) or Lithgow at the Delacorte (August), and it's not much of an improvement on the unfortunate Waterston-led production from 2011. And if you've never seen King Lear, hold off, there's bound to be another one any day now.

King Lear
Shakespeare’s Globe at NYU Skirball Center
Through October 12, 2014
Tickets through tickets.nyu.edu
Running time: 160 minutes, one intermission