Norwich Puppet Theatre

If you're looking for superb entertainment over half-term, then look no further than this unusual production by Theater Taptoe. Adapted from Dickens' Christmas Carol it tells how miserly Mr Scrooge is besieged by spirits from the past, present and future.

It's a clever set with fish tank view of the world outside Scrooge's gloomy offices.

Scrooge is played by an actor with a puppet's foreshortened legs, which serves to lighten the more chilling moments. The overworked and underpaid clerk precariously balances on a pile of books. His fist-shaped wife resides inside his head, occasionally popping out to speak her mind and adding a further dimension of absurdity.

Marley appears as an eerie shadow, rattling his chains. The past is projected on to Scrooge's bed sheet, and the present involves a bizarre lobster feast. But it was the future that really gripped me. Wafting incense and evocative chanting, as a grave digger exhumes a skeleton, Scrooge's own bed sheet becomes his shroud and two framed heads discuss his worthless life.

Clever symbolic references make this production by director Luis Boy equally enjoyable for adults.