A Christmas Carol/The Magic Flute - TNT

With their infectious enthusiasm and boundless vitality, it's impossible not to be swept away by the joyful atmosphere of these new versions of two old favourites as reinterpreted by South African company Isango/Portobello Under the lively direction of Mark Dornford-May, they take most liberties with Dickens' seasonal staple, turning Scrooge into a successful business woman who has worked her way up from the township (seen in video footage) and isn't prepared to give anything back. Cratchitt toils in her goldmine, and his sickly child is now a daughter, Tiny Thembisa who comes looking for sponsorship for her school. Thrillingly evoking the miners working underground with a vibrant mixture of effective lighting, dance, song and Stomp-like effects, this triumphant production starts on a high note and goes on to ensure that Dickens' message of redemption and Christmas spirit still comes across loud and clear but with a particularly South African resonance.
The Magic Flute isn't quite as inventive or moving but it's just as vivacious. Mozart's operatic score has been attractively rearranged for a mini orchestra of marimbas and half-filled glass bottles played by the cast with broad smiles of pure enjoyment. The xylophonic sounds create a unique lilting rhythm against which Tamino sets out to save Pamino, daughter of the Queen of the Night, from the high priest Sarastro. Masonic rituals are replaced by Xhosa-like rites of passage, but all ends happily in this relocated allegory in which even Zamile Gantana's tubby, weak-willed but rather endearing Papageno finally gets his equally tubby gal.
Young Vic, The Cut, SE1 (020-7922 2922). Until January 19. £21.50-£24.50, under 26s £9.50