Not for nothing has the tale of Rapunzel endured since time immemorial.

It is a fairytale feast of witches and woodcutters, princes and promises, spells and spinach.

Spinach? The scourge of school dinners plays a surprisingly prominent role in the Edinburgh Puppet Company's captivating production of the children's classic.

Rapunzel, we learn, is not only the flaxen-haired beauty but also a variety of red-veined spinach. The said vegetable is grown in abundance by a purple-robed witch whose fertile garden belies her own barren state.

When she catches the hapless woodcutter stealing her prized spinach to satisfy the cravings of his pregnant wife, the witch demands the highest price of all - the unborn child to rear as her own.

Fear is the magic ingredient in any fairytale and it is brought successfully into play here. A friend in the audience actually felt shivers running down her daughter's spine.

Such thrills bring joy in equal measure and my daughter's happiness was complete when the set transformed into a shimmering, silver tower over which Rapunzel artfully tosses her golden pigtail thus winning the heart of the prince.

In a finale worthy of a few dozen Barbara Cartland asterisks, Rapunzel tells Prince Ed (known to his friends as Feather Bed Ed) she has something to show him. Moments later, a silhouette appears of the happy couple with a small child in tow. That Rapunzel, when she lets her hair down, there's just no stopping her.