Christmas has come a little early to Stratford East this year. In its mixture of jokey self-mockery and visual inventiveness, this very free but hugely enjoyable version of Jules Verne's classic novel has something of the uncorseted gaiety of the Theatre Royal's famous annual pantomimes.

Patrick Prior, who has actually written six of the Christmas shows, gives us a mixture of Verne's scientific adventure, Victorian melodrama and James Bond story. The celebrated Captain Nemo brings Professor Arronax aboard his submarine Nautilus in order to harness the power of the latter's solar gun. Nemo's aim is to dominate a world that is out to destroy nature but, in acquiring Arronax's expertise, Nemo also finds himself saddled with a heroic harpoonist in the shape of Ned Land and an outrageous Victorian snob and her nervous niece.

The attempt to foil Nemo's plan to hold the world to ransom is, however, largely an excuse to usher on a series of episodic set-pieces; and, in Kerry Michael's production, these are imaginatively realised by the designer, Nick Barnes. Our first glimpse of the underwater world, implied through a perspective of giant rings, has a Wagnerian grandeur. The giant squid that haunts Captain Nemo, turning him into a reverse Captain Ahab, is evoked through a pair of staring, saucer-like eyes and enfolding tentacles. And the group's adventures in Atlantis are retailed largely through stick-puppets, one of which plunges alarmingly into a crevasse.

Sometimes the jocular tone is a bit excessive. One of the characters needlessly cries at one point: "It's like being in a terrible melodrama." But the production's sheer visual bravura overcomes all doubts. And Michael N Harbour gives an excellent performance as Captain Nemo. Even if we never see him seated at the organ playing Bach, like James Mason in the movie, he implies that Nemo's global ambitions are fuelled by personal injury and a genuine horror at the mess we have made of the planet.

Michael Bertenshaw as the agonised Arronax, and Steve Toussaint as the narrating Ned, offer dignified support and Robert Hyman, as composer and musical director, underscores the action from a circle box. You may not get Verne's Homeric framework or passion for scientific lists but Stratford East has come up with a delightful family show that achieves visual miracles on a modest budget.

· Until June 29. Box office: 020-8534 0310.