No Hal, no Hotspur, no fat-bellied Falstaff - this is a very different Henry IV.

Forget the Battle of Shrewsbury of 1403 and think 11th century Germany re-enacted in the present day.

The contrast is made clear almost immediately; under the instruction 'lose those bells!', a costumed courtier produces a remote control from beneath his tunic to silence the recorded chiming.

'Henry' (we never learn his true name) is a man who can't let go of the past - quite literally. A fall from his horse at an historical pageant two decades previously plunges 'Henry' into madness where he assumes the character of a monarch whose bones have not stirred for the best part of a millennium.

Heartstopping Stoppard

This is not a play from the quill of our beloved Bard but from the early-20th century pen of Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello, recently rejigged by Tom Stoppard of 'Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead' fame.

The brisk, witty dialogue bears the Stoppard hallmark but, however removed from Shakespeare this Henry IV might be, Macbeth would identify with this unhinged kings and such lines as 'words, empty words, weigh less than a fly' may well have been uttered by the lips of Hamlet.

The recurrent themes of lost youth, madness and illusion lead to a procession of philosophically-charged phrases, delicately juxtaposed with the gloriously comic.

Contemplations on the definition of madness and the existence of truth counterbalance Belcredi's (David Yelland) sardonic asides - memorably, 'he's as sane as a hatter!'

Henry the Fourth, I am, I am

Belcredi is one member of the party that arrives at the house-cum-11th-century-palace hoping to cure 'Henry's' madness.

The subtle lighting upon the simple set of stone walls and classical pillars is background enough for a drama that needs little elaboration.

The audience is kept on tenterhooks for most of the first act waiting for 'Himself' to appear.

When Henry (Ian McDiarmid) did emerge, disheveled in repentant sackcloth and ashes, a reverent hush fell upon the Old Vic.

From that moment on McDiarmid captivated and enthralled with a superlative performance. His ability to be a stately ruler, a frail old man and a gibbering lunatic in the same breath was nothing short of mesmeric.

The second act must remain a secret as it is bristles with a fusillade of surprise Stoppard twists but, needless to say, 'Henry' is always at the helm.