Bears in Space

• Brian Donaldson
• 26 August 2014

This article is from 2014.

Idil Sukan

Talented cast navigate through muddled story in hour of entertaining puppetry at Edinburgh Festival Fringe

While much of the press attention for Bears in Space focussed on the fact that King Joffrey was in the show, admirably little ego has been displayed by Irish actor Jack Gleeson. At this hour’s finale, while a female fan hangs awkwardly back to chat with her hero, Gleeson doesn’t seem to notice and mucks in with the rest of the Collapsing Horse crew to clean up their stage before the next act gets set for their hour in the sun. This is, of course, how it should be, but we’re all too familiar with tales of early fame going straight to young heads.

As for the show itself, it’s not clear whether this is a reference to the famous Muppets sketch about intergalactic pigs, but it’s still a tough sell to keep an audience entertained with an hour of puppetry about bears. Thankfully, there are other elements chucked in to this story of a cuddly crew of bears lost in space being threatened by a less cuddly crew of bears.

There’s also a 2001-esque computer with a cheeky side, a Latino bounty hunter and a Boosh-like abomination called Skin. While the story feels a little muddled and incomplete, the best efforts of a talented cast pushes Bears in Space over the line.

Underbelly Cowgate, run ended.