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Review: Bears in Space or King Joffrey plays with teddies at the Soho Theatre

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Bears in Space at the Soho Theatre until Aug 22

While Game of Thrones TV series fans the world over debate whether Jon Snow is really dead there is one resurrection that has definitely happened. Yes, evil King Joffrey is back or rather the actor who played him: Jack Gleeson. 

He was reported as saying he was hanging up his acting shoes post his TV character's dramatic poisoning but last year, together with a group of friends under the name Collapsing Horse, took a show - Bears in Space - to Edinburgh.

He must have enjoyed treading the boards with his hand up a teddy puppet's bottom because the show has come to London and is in residence at the Soho Theatre for a few weeks. It is an event that hasn't gone unnoticed by GoT fans as the gaggle of clip-board clutching autograph hunters outside the theatre will attest.

But there are plenty of reasons to see Bears in Space other than getting the chance to look the evil Joffrey in the eye. It is very silly and full of chuckles and laughs as the four performers - Aaron Heffernan, Eoghan Quinn and Cameron Macaulay joining Gleeson - recount the story of 'Bears. That are in space'.

There is a ragtag polar bear with amnesia and aspirations of being a space captain and a spectacle wearing koala who is in love with the real captain of their spaceship who is in induced stasis.  Throw in the affected and evil leader of an industrial planet (Gleeson hamming up Joffrey) looking to manipulate our bear heroes for his own betterment and you get the idea.

It's cheeky and tongue in cheek and as much about the innovative method of storytelling than the story itself. As well as the bear and creature puppets with their myriad of international accents there is shadow puppetry (someone is very good a lino cutting), music, song and clever use of everyday objects for set and props.

The witty script by Eoghan Quinn is brilliantly performed and the result is a show that is such silly fun you will be grinning from ear to ear. Afterwards you won't look at King Joffrey in old episodes of Game of Thrones in quite the same light.

Bears in Space is 80 minutes without interval catch it at the Soho Theatre upstairs until August 22.

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