The first thing that has to be said about Henry V is it wasn't the first thing that had to be said. That's because it isn't a sequel, it's a fourquel, expanding on characters who first appear in Shakespeare's Richard II and Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2. Luckily, as with Star Wars, you can pretty much live without Episodes I through III. All you really need to know is the English prince, Henry IV, was once a callow youth nicknamed Hal, who hung out with reprobate buddies like Falstaff and was considered a lost cause by his subjects. The through line is Henry's rise from immaturity to battlefield heroism, culminating in a meet cute with a jolie French princess.

Harlequin's production revives the set and concept of a '98 run, for which director Scot Whitney pared Shakespeare's cast down to six men and two women. The actors play actors, who spill out of a roadside pageant wagon. (Like Henry himself, the pageant wagon approach was centuries dead when the Bard penned this history, but never mind.) Jason Marr plays Hank; it's a solid portrayal, especially in an underplayed St. Crispin's Day speech. The acting's quite strong throughout, in fact, offering treats like Maggie Lofquist's bilingual princess and Casey Brown as a dauphin who thinks he's a rock star. I tended to conflate Henry's soldiers, who hail from all over the present-day UK, and I'm not sure their accents are any less confused. Happily, though, the battle scenes are excitingly choreographed, and we're able to follow the story from beginning to end. Bruce Whitney's sound design works wonders here, along with his Princess Bride-style synthetic score, by clarifying transitions and adding depth and volume to onstage combat.

If I have one quibble with Whitney's concept, it's that it diminishes the impact of Act I. Not the chorus, mind you - Daniel Flint does a fine job setting us up for the "vasty fields of France" - but the reason England dares invading France in the first place. See, in Kenneth Branagh's riveting 1989 movie version, we feel the scalding insult of the dauphin's sporty tribute to Prince Henry. In this production, we're still in meta mode for that scene, with Marr playing drunk for several key minutes. The result is we side with the English only because we're told to. In a three-hour show, that lessens our gut-level attachment.

Armchair dramaturgs may find it interesting to compare Henry V with the structure of a modern macho action flick, the archetype for which is still probably Die Hard. We find it difficult at first to take our scruffy protagonist seriously, then a Eurotrash villain pushes him too far, there's a sassy dame, all hell breaks loose, yada yada. I found myself longing for a soda and a bucket of popcorn.

HENRY V, 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through Oct. 26, Harlequin Productions, 202 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia, $20-$38, 360.786.0151