Time was — when Joseph Papp was running through the full canon at the open-air Delacorte Theater in Central Park and at his downtown quarters — the Public was the only reliable producer of Shakespeare in town. Oskar Eustis, the current artistic director there, sees not only “steady hunger for well-done Shakespeare” among audiences, but also a certain safety for troupes returning to him over and over in tough financial times.

“You know the writer isn’t going to let you down, and that audiences will always come out for good Shakespeare,” Mr. Eustis said.

To guard against complacency Mr. Eustis is moving away from the great audience pleasers like “Hamlet” and “Twelfth Night” and delving into the less popular “problem plays.” Two of them are on tap for the Delacorte this summer, “All’s Well That Ends Well” and “Measure for Measure,” and a third is the current “Timon” production of the Public Lab series, which offers stripped-down productions. An inducement for wary theatergoers: All seats for “Timon” are $15, and the Delacorte tickets will be free as always.

Barry Edelstein, the director of “Timon,” said that he had wanted to stage the play for years but didn’t have a timely argument for it until the financial meltdown of 2008, given the play’s allegorical plot of a man who gives away all his money and is deserted by false friends, only to happen upon new wealth that he uses toward his own ends. Against the backdrop of multiple “Merchants” and “Macbeths,” Mr. Edelstein said, “Timon” would “come across like a new play to people,” yet also deliver insights into the human condition that theatergoers appreciate from the playwright.”

Image Al Pacino ends his Broadway run as Shylock on Sunday. Credit... Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

“I think more Shakespeare plays get done in times like today, when things are turbulent or unsettled, and people want to turn to wise men and women whose stories can shed light on the way we act,” said Mr. Edelstein, who oversees the Public’s Shakespeare offerings. These include its new Mobile Unit, which performed “Measure for Measure” at New York City prisons and shelters late last year and will return to the streets later this year.

Another reflection of new thinking about Shakespeare, the Propeller troupe’s all-male “Comedy of Errors” coming to the Brooklyn Academy of Music from England in March, is the sort of experimentation that draws praise from artists who otherwise see the staging of Shakespeare’s great plays as stealing money for new work. Allan Buchman, artistic director of the Culture Project, said he was forming an all-female acting ensemble called the Troupe of Cordelia (for King Lear’s youngest daughter) to “strive to make classical work new and fresh.”