LAB! Theatre’s production of Julius Caesar still relevant today

Julius Caesar was assassinated 2,056 years ago.

More than 1,600 years later, William Shakespeare wrote a play about it.

This weekend, LAB! Theatre will bring the ancient Roman dictator to his knees once again with the company’s production of Shakespeare’s tragedy “Julius Caesar,” which opens tonight in Kenan Theatre.

The show’s director, senior Josh Wolonick, led the cast and crew in a semester-long study in the play’s politics and poetry.

Wolonick and the 15 students filling the play’s 45 roles spent the month before rehearsals studying the text. But Wolonick said the work paid off — by the second rehearsal the cast was up on its feet.

Wolonick said he developed his love of Shakespeare after spending a summer studying the playwright’s work in London.

During his time there, which included studies at Oxford University, he saw plays performed at Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon, and in London’s Globe Theatre, where the plays were originally performed.

After watching the plays from the Globe’s groundlings section, where the commoners of Shakespeare’s day stood, Wolonick said he understood the breadth of Shakespeare’s target audience.

“There is a common misconception that Shakespeare is for intellectuals only,” Wolonick said.

“Done poorly it’s for thinkers, but done well it’s for those who really live.”

Shakespeare invented the way we think about human nature, Wolonick said.

“His work is the fruit of the most immense and beautiful imagination,” he said. “It’s up to us to open ours and let his work support us.”

Wolonick said he chose to produce “Julius Caesar” because it seemed most suited for the campus, the actors and the time. He said he sees a parallel between contemporary political turmoil and the play’s events.

“It begs us to ask questions and doesn’t give us any answers,” he said.

Senior Jeffrey Sullivan will play Caesar. It is his first starring role. He also works as a designer for The Daily Tar Heel.

Sullivan’s last appearance was in a LAB! production of “Stick Up Kids,” a student-written play by Sam Smith.

“I only had one line,” Sullivan said. “And it was optional.”

Sullivan said he never predicted he would be cast as the lead role in a Shakespeare play.

“It’s kind of scary playing a role that people who have won Tonys and Oscars have played, but it’s been fun,” he said. The ensemble is great. Everyone really pulls together to make the theater come alive.”

Gregory Kable, a professor in the department of dramatic art, said students should take advantage of seeing Shakespeare plays on the stage — not just on paper.

“Plays were intended for performing, and that’s when they come to life,” he said.

“When reading a play, the rationality of the English language dominates your experience. When you watch one of his dramas being performed, you get a more genuine experience of what Shakespeare was about.”

Wolonick also said it’s important to see Shakespeare’s work performed live.

“Shakespeare’s words are the air the production breathes, and the actors are the heartbeat.”

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