My eyes had the option of gazing upon the luscious sight of Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal sharing a stage in the flesh.

But instead, I couldn’t stop staring at those dang columns towering behind them.

Shakespearean plots have a habit of hinging on characters eavesdropping on each other, as in Othello. And yet, despite this prevalence, few productions figure out how to visually stage this eavesdropping in a believable manner. 

Spying is hard! Common approaches: the spy retreats into the wings, or tries to find a hidden corner — ….in plain view of the audience — on a set that now feels artificially designed to serve this purpose. And even so, they usually end up looking like this:

But the way Denzel stalks behind those permanent, periodically-moving columns actually seems realistic! It’s at least convincing enough to convey that Othello hears only fragments of this essential conversation, which he pieces together into the most consequential decision of his life. 

Can you say thematic?

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Much Ado About Nothing self-spoofs this eavesdropping trope, and Jamie Lloyd’s London revival with Tom Hiddleston gloriously sent up this cliché…in flowers.