“How many ages hence shall this our lofty scene be acted over in states unborn and accents yet unknown!” exults Caius Cassius in Act Three, Scene One of the classic “Julius Caesar.” But I probably won’t spoil much for Shakespeare fans by mentioning that Cassius says this halfway through the play over the Roman leader’s cooling body. It was a moment that resonated with real force when I saw it this past weekend in Second Stage’s production of the classic, directed by Josh Cohen ’14 and Christian Schneider ’14.

The Bard’s sly self-reference was delivered in the production by newcomer Sivan Battat ’15, who shone brilliantly in the role of “lean and hungry” Cassius, the play’s villain and chief architect of Caesar’s assassination. Ever a schemer, Cassius convinces his good friend and honorable man, Marcus Brutus (Brett Keating ’15) to join her and a group of conspirators to kill that newly risen man of power, Julius Caesar (Felipe DaCosta ’15). At its strongest, this was a tight performance that debuted several talented new actors, and even at its weakest, it provided an opportunity for Shakespeare’s verse to soar.

To start with the criticisms: Cohen and Schneider have done a thorough job preparing the cast and training the ensemble in Shakespearean delivery, but the show’s staging sometimes lacked punch. The cast had a tendency to wander the stage and to settle into comfortable speaking distances rather than playing strong, direct actions. I also disliked the choice to change all of the pronouns to reflect the gender of the performer: lines about “hollow women” or “a woman such as you” carry a different weight when said by a man to a woman than by their male-male equivalents. In particular, the relationship between Brutus and Cassius, so central to the play’s success loses a lot of its punch if one senses even a bit of condescension in the play’s protagonist.

Despite these minor flaws and some weaker moments of staging (a beautiful monologue by Calpurnia, Caesar’s wife, was movingly delivered by Grace Holland ’15 with her back to half the audience), the show was remarkably well cast and performed. As I mentioned, Battat was the standout, but DaCosta was also an engaging performer who brought some surprising humor to Caesar, who in the script is frequently more an object than a person. Michelle Agresti ’14 and Holland were both excellent in their tragically underdeveloped roles as Portia (Brutus’ wife) and Calpurnia, respectively—the fault was not in this show but in its text, that these great women each get but one scene. The cast was rounded out by Noah Masur ’15 as the bitter senator Casca and Schneider himself playing the general and friend of Caesar Mark Antony, all backed by a strong ensemble too numerous to list here that made the most out of many smaller characters’ moments.

The performer I have not touched on yet, of course, is Keating, who played Brutus. Brutus is an intellectual and a civic-minded man, and Keating played him as one who kept a tight rein on his emotions—an interesting choice, but one that robbed some scenes of their punch. My feelings were mixed. With his similar height and build but older face, he was a natural foil for Schneider, the leader of the opposing forces, but he occasionally seemed to retreat into his head as though unwilling or afraid of giving room to Brutus’ full passions. Sometimes this worked well: the moment when Brutus tells Cassius of Portia’s death, with Keating staring into his wine bowl and struggling to speak without breaking, was phenomenal. But at other times I would have liked to see him lose a little bit of that control; I was slightly disappointed by the famous tent scene in Act Four, Scene Three that leaves a shaken Cassius saying to his friend, “I did not think you could have been so angry.”

Rigid and honorable to the point of compulsion, Keating served the play well as Brutus, and I was well satisfied by this production of the classic. The strong cast and evocative soundscape by Rachel Leicher ’15 kept me fully engaged in the play’s universe. Gabe Finkelstein ’12, in chargle of lighting, also did a good job with clearly limited resources, and, above all, the poetry of the language was given full rein. Sometimes that’s all you need to put on a Shakespeare production: a group of actors, a script, and a place to act. In fact, sometimes that works out best.