King Lear, playing through August 19 at Shakespeare and Co. under the direction of Rebecca Holderness, offers some surprises which will delight or confuse playgoers. One of the Bard’s longest tragedies, it has been slightly cut and plays in three hours keeping the double-edged plot intact.

In the opening scene of the play, Lear (Dennis Krausnick) banishes his only honest and loving daughter Cordelia (Kelly Galvin) and in a division of his kingdom gives all to his two deceitful and fawning daughters, Goneril (Corinna May) and Regan (Kristin Wold).

In the more prosaic subplot, the Earl of Glocester (Jonathan Croy) unwittingly banishes his loving and dutiful son Edgar (Ryan Winkles) and believes the lies his bastard son Edmund (Peter Macklin) tells him.

These two acts of the gullible old men are each fatal. Out of them grows the civil war in which both will die. The civil war that dominates much of the action introduces one of the major changes in the current presentation of the play. The action takes place not in ancient England, but in Russia in 1906, a time in which the Tsar was deposed and slain.

This change is marvelous in its own way in that it offers the costume designer (Govane Lohbauer) the opportunity to clothe the warring men in magnificent uniforms of contrasting colors, and to costume the women in furs, velvet gowns, and jewels. Set designer (Sandra Goldmark) will get mixed reviews.

The set is surreal with bare ladders, multiple small levels, a trap door, door outlines to signify indoor scenes, and great white curtains that are employed in various, and at times ingenious, ways. Again, something in this performance to love or be doubtful about. For this reviewer it did not work as Dover, especially in the heart-wrenching scene between blind Gloucester and his loyal, although banished, Edgar.

However at times the set was used delightfully. Kevin C. Coleman, as Lear’s Fool, used every inch of it in a will-o-the-wisp flitting up and about. And the curtains made even more devastating the scene of the blinding of Gloucester. There was even, in that anywhere set, room for stocks in which Kent, another trustee banished and played magnificently by Jonathan Epstein to be shackled.

Whatever audience members will make of the changes the most interesting to all will be the opportunity of experiencing the playing of Lear by Dennis Krausnick, who has in the last ten years of his busy theatrical life been working on developing his concept and acting style for the character of the king. (Radical changes in locale and time periods are often, indeed even this summer at other theatres, on display.)

Krausnick’s playing literally strips the king bare. The sad small line, “I pray you, undo this button” must be cut although even in its absence perhaps builds the interpretation. This production gives us a character with whom the actor has lived and thought for years. It is one conceived as a self-willed king of great strength but who in his dotage cannot cope with anger and frustration. For this reviewer the set did not give him enough for the storm scene and the marvelous lines in it. And one wanted more contact with the dying Cordelia, again perhaps the set?

Obviously this is an unusual Lear and one well worth seeing. It is studded with strong cast members, each moving with grace or treachery or malice. Holderness has at times made bold choices. And her play is well worth seeing; the interpretation of the role Krausnick plays is an unusually vigorous one.

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Theatre Festival has presented the world premier of Kathleen Clark’s In the Mood. The play is described as a comedy but viewing the magnificent set as one awaits the play to begin, it is apparent the action will spill over into farce.

Because there before our eyes on the widest proscenium opening one can recall seeing at the BTF is the demanding farce stage and those five farce doors. The setting is the enormous upscale apartment of Perri Rubin (Erin Dilly) and her husband Derek (Damian Young) for whom Perri has planned a surprise birthday party and invited scores of guests. (Designer Lee Savage)

Should things go as she planned, the enormous living room, replete with grand piano, cocktail bar, rooms on second floor, and an elevator that opens directly into her living room could almost accommodate them.

One guest is already on scene when the play opens-Nick Eliot (Stephen R. Buntrock) who musing at the piano gets Perri to sing with him (a former boyfriend) the 1940’s hit song, In the Mood, and the play begins with Perri (ala Gertrud Lawrence) clad gorgeously in red, long blond hair hanging to her shoulders, and him, rendering the song.

At the end of the play one is about to see, the song is repeated, bringing the 75 minute, no intermission, play to a close very different from the one it seemed to begin.

The stage is well designed for the chaos that soon erupts. The apartment is on a high floor, naturally, and the elevator, upstage center, is, the desk informs, not working. This a great misfortune for guests struggling to reach the party (few do).

Among those who do are Perri’s husband and Carolyn Shore (Jennifer Cody, uninvited) and Edward Horton (Arnie Burton) and Sally Elliot (Johanna Day). No one else makes it, and the play’s cast is thus assembled for the hysterically funny situations and also snappy dialog and at times epigram, such as one remembers in Cole Porter and even Oscar Wilde.

A plot summary is being deliberately omitted. Audiences will find it out for themselves and respond with belly laughs as they did on opening night.

Director Marc Bruni has served his cast well. There is never time for a dull moment. Each of the six actors, all in significant roles are well cast and throw themselves physically as well as vocally into their roles-ones that when they entered they did not always know they had. Watch out for the word “contractor.” And for lines such as, “my ex-wife and I were the Lunts of Off-Off Broadway.” These are all actors who can think on their feet and roll with the unexpected.

It all makes for an enjoyable evening. As for the play itself, my feeling is that it should, and very possibly will, evolve into a longer two-act play. The script cries for it in trying to pack so much into 75 minutes, and the actors are so gifted and engaging, their talents cry for it too.

Meanwhile, it is rewarding, now and then, to be a part of a new play a-borning; and to wish it well.

Berkshire Theatre Festival 2011 schedule.