In Gregory Doran’s recent revivals of the two parts of Henry IV, Alex Hassell captured the complexities of Prince Hal growing up: the heir to the throne, at once conscious of his status and attempting to resist it, gradually becoming aware that his responsibilities are inescapable, until at the end of Part 2 he is crowned King Henry V. In the play with Henry’s own regnal title, Hassell continues the process with intelligence and honesty.

It is a beautiful portrait, beginning with a Henry whose anger at the French insult of him is tempered with a tentativeness regarding his own position, and whose sense of his kingly duty is genuine throughout. The play’s brace of major set-piece speeches, “Once more unto the breach” and “St Crispin’s Day”, are not rhetorical bravura, but in some ways almost as introspective as Henry’s self-questioning when alone in the night before the battle of Agincourt. Conversely, the more ebullient side of his nature is never entirely lost: after the battle, his sincere and devout thanks to God for giving England the victory are so often interrupted by the Welsh captain Fluellen that Henry ends up breaking into laughter.

Doran’s production is straightforward and clear. There is no selectivity as between the various facets of Shakespeare’s dramatic portrait, and the most idiosyncratic touch is to present Oliver Ford Davies as the Chorus clad in cardigan, muffler and corduroys, as if he had wandered onstage from the Senior Common Room. (He, too, is unsurprisingly excellent.)

Such a conventional production is still not without its surprises. The French princess Katherine is usually shown as shyly succumbing to Henry’s wooing almost from the first, but Jennifer Kirby’s Kate begins as implacable, to be gradually charmed by Henry’s absurd clumsiness as a suitor. A little earlier, he rewards the private soldier Williams not for apologising over rowing with the disguised Henry the previous night, but for nevertheless following the apology up with the promised punch in the royal chops. The entire first history tetralogy – Richard II, both Henry IVs and this play – come to the Barbican in London this winter, so the coherent power of Hassell’s character development can be appreciated in full.

Written for the Financial Times.