Peter Sellars loves Shakespeare so much, he’s “improved” him.
It’s clear the director, long opera’s bad boy, has read “Othello” very closely. You might want to bring the same level of attention to the lengthy program notes before the play starts.
It’ll help you figure out that Bianca Montano (Saidah Arrika Ekulona) is an amalgam of the prostitute Bianca, the Clown and Governor Montano. And that Emilia (Liza Colón-Zayas), the wife of the treacherous Iago (Philip Seymour Hoffman), keeps fiddling with water and flowers in the background because she’s into Santeria. Okaaaay.
And all this for what? Sellars’ wretched show is both too much and not enough.
In actuality, this supposedly daring Public Theater/Labyrinth Company production is a sheep in wolf’s clothing. There’s nothing genuinely radical onstage, only a cosmic void free of passion, insight and imagination.
Surprisingly, considering some of the talent involved, the most basic level of craft is lacking.
The only thing you’ll find in abundance is time: The glacially paced show takes four hours to go nowhere.
Modern dress is a common option by now, but here it’s leaden with clichés (much yelling into cellphones) and politically correct racial elements that feel opportunistic (we’re in the age of Obama, in case you’d missed it) and random (Othello is played by Latino John Ortiz).
But all this baggage doesn’t translate to the empty production. Even the set is preposterous — dominated by a bed made of TV monitors, so when Othello and Desdemona (Jessica Chastain) roll around on it, it’s like they’re making out at Best Buy.
Worse, the miscast actors are misdirected — when in doubt, they shout their lines the way “American Idol” contestants fall back on melisma. Ortiz is pallid, Chastain ineffectual, and Ekulona (fantastic as the brothel owner in “Ruined”) just glowers.
As for Hoffman, his Iago is a socially maladjusted nerd in a tight top (you can picture him inhaling Cheetos while watching “Battlestar Galactica”) who strikes out of hurt and insecurity. An interesting idea, but the star barely registers.
Unfortunately, this debacle could have long-lasting repercussions. It might deter future daring productions, dooming us to years of “Masterpiece Theatre” Shakespeare.
And it might scare off from theater the many students in the audience. That would be the worst legacy of all.
Skirball Center, 566 LaGuardia PLace; 212-967-7555. Through Oct. 4