One is loath to single out any other individual performance, lest one subtract from the power of the ensemble's. However it would be impossible not to mention the mighty Jonathan Slinger, whose Richard III garnered such plaudits. His is perfect as Fluellen, the belligerent Welsh captain, whether haplessly identifying Henry's rejection of Falstaff, or beating Pistol, by leek and cudgel, in a scene played with such vitality that six rows back I could smell and taste the leek.

That is not the only moment when the audience is caught up in the texture of the play. When the time is come for the onslaught of steel from the massed ranks of the English and Welsh Longbows, the auditorium is filled with hundreds of crepe streamers. These arc through the flying French Knights, benignly assailing both nobleman and patron to great effect. It is a perfectly realized moment that resists the 'sturm und drang' found in more obvious productions.

To emphasise the foundations of empire and conquest, the post-Agincourt play is acted out on a plinth. This is constructed, as we watch, from the coffins of those who died in battle. It is as if the visceral reality of the statistics and the roll call of the dead do not make their point with enough force.

Another point made with great force is in the pre-battle walkabout, where the disguised King is told by soldier Michael Williams of the spiritual consequences of immoral and unjust war: 'But if the cause be not good, the King himself hath a heavy reckoning to make.' Williams goes on to detail the horrors that await those who invoke war without wisdom and just cause: 'It will be a black matter for the King that led them.'

The ovation that greets the cast at the final curtain is perhaps all the critical perspective necessary on this masterly production. I must urge you to see it if at all possible. While there, please spend three pounds on a program; it has worthwhile historical context, and essays of academic perspective, one by Stephen Greenblatt worth the purchase cost alone.

Without the weight of the whole world watching a festival of every Shakespearian play, it seems the R.S.C. is still capable of world-class productions: 'A Kingdom for a stage, princes to act / And monarchs to behold the swelling scene'.