Kneehigh's playful approach to narrative has spawned many imitators but few of these companies manage to get it just right. Even Kneehigh itself has occasionally been scuppered by its own technique but with Rapunzel, returning after a successful run at the BAC last Christmas, everything is wonderfully spot-on.

Crucially, the quirks of the production are never allowed to impede the all-important storytelling, which means no self-satisfied wallowing in cleverness for cleverness's sake.

The obligatory business with the long hair and the tower does feature in Annie Siddons's pleasingly robust take on this folk tale but it is all over and done with by the end of the first half.

For the second, feisty, independence-seeking Rapunzel must scour the harsh Italian countryside for her Prince, whom the machinations of her obsessively protective adoptive mother have driven away. Siddons offers a resonant account of rebirth and renewal, as well as the redemptive power of love.

Emma Rice's bouncy production has much to delight, not least an in-the-round staging in a reconfigured QEH that allows the actors vital intimacy with the audience.

Michael Vale's ingenious design starts with two versatile slatted wooden platforms, under which the actors whizz about on wheeled boards and above which a large red swing hangs to represent the tower.

It's suspended up here that the lovers conduct their wooing and, as played by the fine duo of Edith Tankus and Pieter Lawman, they're a believable couple with the sort of three-dimensional problems that cannot be dissolved by a handful of fairy dust.

Magic fans need not worry, however, as an articulated puppet pig with a stash of mysterious golden acorns tends to show up whenever things get particularly dire. An evening that will appeal to everyone, whether they're on school holidays or not.

• Until 5 January (0871 663 2500, www.southbankcentre.co.uk).