I Climbed a Mountain Last Night.
At least, that's what both the actors and the audience do when they produce respectivly watch Othello, director Peter Sellars said afterwards in a Q&A.

I wasn't that thrilled with the production. At times it dragged a bit, but for several reasons it's an intriguing production nonetheless. The cast consists of actors of several different races so that Othello isn't the only non-white character. I also liked the sparse set production that mainly consists of a bed, which itself is made of 45 TV screens that constantly show pictures. And I liked that rather often the characters didn't leave the stage but remained. This was particularly effective when Iago spoke about Othello and Desdemona, and we could watch them at the same time – a bit like a split screen.

I always find it hard to understand Shakespeare's language, and I took me quite some time to get accustomed to the American accents, but for me the real problems were the microphones. Sometimes the voices appeared very low, flat and therefore almost emotionless while at other times they echoed through the auditorium when one of the actors spoke louder or even shouted. It was a pity because I thought that particularly John Ortiz as Othello and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Iago were really good, but their acting was diminished by the poor sound.

Peter Sellars admitted that he himself was happier with the sound during the second half of the play and told us that they were still working on it. He also explained why he used the microphones in the first place, namely because he tries to create something like a film soundtrack for his theatre productions, and because he's not fond of actors declaiming and opts for a more natural voice. He told us that e.g. the microphones make sure that the actors are able to play the many intimate scenes that exist in Othello.

The latter reason is the one thing he explained during the Q&A I definitely disagree with because ideally actors can whisper and still be heard in the entire auditorium. First, that's what actors (should) learn in drama school and second, that's what theatre auditoriums are built for.

Still, while the production wasn't the most fascinating one I've ever seen, I'm happy that I did see it. And I'm particularly happy that I stayed for the Q&A because Peter Sellars turned out to be a very intelligent and witty man, and it was refreshing to see a director who actually thinks about what he's doing and why he decides for the actors to do certain things on stage. Not that I get to see directors at a Q&A all of the time, but it happens often enough that I read an article about a particular production, and it becomes clear that the (German) director didn't think very much. I'm glad to see that there are still other directors around.