‘Can this cockpit hold the vasty fields of France?” as the Chorus asks. Indeed, it can — and brilliantly. Propeller’s all-male production of Henry V — unveiled at Newbury’s Watermill Theatre as long ago as 1997 — returns there in triumph as part of a spring tour, together with the same company’s take, under director Edward Hall, on The Winter’s Tale.

This most patriotic — not to say jingoistic — slice of our island’s history is fashioned by the company into an inspiring, lump-in-throat, two-and-a-half hours of energetic theatre.

A signal success on its first outing for the Prince Hal of Jamie Glover, the production now boasts a martial martinet — as he at times appears — in Dugald Bruce-Lockhart.

“Once more unto the breach”; “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers” — the ringing phrases so urgently summoned to mind whenever this play’s title is mentioned are handled superbly by an actor well tuned to the glorious poetry placed into his mouth.

Physically, too, we see a charismatic Hal, truly credible as he galvanises the inferior forces of the English army against the might of the French. Never, in my experience, has the king’s steely demeanour been better presented in the crucial scene in which are dispatched the trio of traitors, the Earl of Cambridge (Richard Dempsey). Lord Scroop (the excellent Karl Davies) and Sir Thomas Grey (Nicholas Asbury).

‘All-male’ on this occasion proves no especial challenge, since this is, of course, a play in which women play little part. That said, Karl Davies (again) gives a warm and wonderful portrait of the French princess Katherine, with Chris Miles on marvellous comic form as her moustachioed ‘gentlewoman’.

Tony Bell, meanwhile, supplies a welcome comic turn as Mistress Quickly, with husband Pistol (Vince Leigh) and his rival Nym (Finn Hanlon) earning deserved laughter, too.

Curiously — although we are reminded of Hal’s “wilder days” in a memorable scene that follows the execution of Bardoph (Gary Shelford) — all mention of the incomparable Sir John Falstaff has been excised by Hall (wrongly in my view). This includes the affecting description of his passing by Quickly, one of the most touching moments in this, or any, play.

The stereotypical Welshman Fluellen, often a bit of a bore in productions of Henry V, emerges here as a heroic and likeable figure, thanks to a nicely judged performance by Tony Bell.

The plays continue until April 21. For tickets call 01635 46044 (www.watermill.org.uk).