Christopher Gray is impressed with the top-class performances at Stratford's Royal Shakespeare Theatre

In the week that has seen the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, it is hard to imagine a fitter tribute to his genius than the near-perfect representation of Sir John Falstaff, the character many judge his greatest, in new productions on the Stratford stage.

This is supplied by Antony Sher in splendid revivals of the two parts of Henry IV by the Royal Shakespeare Company under its artistic director Gregory Doran.

Though concerned with the political struggles of the titular monarch, the plays are equally focused, of course, on the lowlife of a rival ‘court’, that of the Boar’s Head Tavern, Eastcheap, with the amazing figure of Falstaff at its centre.

Sher might not appear an obvious, or even sensible, choice to play the Fat Knight. He is hardly a large man to start with and goes in for none of the massive padding we are used to seeing in the role. Perhaps this is to underline the point that bodily size doesn’t matter here, for Sher offers in vast quantity instead what the great critic Harold Bloom has called “Falstaff’s festival of language”.

Every rich syllable of his wit is savoured in delivery — hear, for instance, the lipsmacking utterance of “inflammation” that prefaces his hymn to sack — in an accent clearly revealing of his aristo background.

No need to wonder how he has drawn Prince Hal (Alex Hassell) into his circle to the despair of his father the king (Jasper Britton).

Henry has more than a wild son to contend with in the shape of his even wilder enemy Harry Hotspur, played with explosive jack-in-the-box force by Trevor White.

Among other top-class performances, I commend especially those of Simon Thorp as an authoritative Lord Chief Justice and Oliver Ford Davies shining as Justice Shallow in the hilarious scenes in rural Gloucestershire.

Henry IV Parts I and II
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford
Until September 6
Box office: 0844 800 1110 rsc.org.uk