Bard fans in China get to watch his Prince Hal in action

The Royal Shakespeare Company, led by its artistic director Gregory Doran, is touring China with Henry IV, Part I, Henry IV, Part II and Henry V. [Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily]

They trace the journey of a young prince through his experiences of accepting responsibilities and learning to be a leader, he says.

"Henry IV shows a vast panorama of society from the king at the top down to prostitutes, while Henry V is really about war and about the experience of going to war."

It shows you the challenges a society as a whole faces when engaged in conflict, he says.

Wang Xiaoying, Chinese director who has directed Shakespeare's Richard III and presented the play at Globe Theatre in London in 2012, says: "The Henry series is really an extraordinary epic of life. The plays have a vast panoply of wonderful characters. Some parts are very funny, and some are tragic and also very moving."

Shakespeare is relevant to people today, even after 400 years, says Pu Cunxin, a popular Chinese actor and director of the Beijing People's Arts Theater.

"He still manages to speak to us, about the human heart, in the most memorable and astonishing language," says Pu, who once played the role of Hamlet.

To Doran, who began his career with the RSC as an actor in 1987, Shakespeare has provided him the "passport of life". He believes the same is true of other fans of the Bard of Avon.

"As a child you are grabbed by stories of ghosts, witches, fairies, shipwrecks and battles. And later on, you become intrigued by the great richness of his language, very memorable phrases and the beauty of that language," he says.

"Somebody once said that speaking Shakespeare is like having a jewel in your mouth."