HE IS best known as bloodthirsty King Joffrey Baratheon in the hit series 'Game of Thrones', but Jack Gleeson will return to acting as a teddy bear.

He admits that upcoming theatre show 'Bears in Space' is "very different from 'Game of Thrones', that's for sure".

"The show is about two cosmonaut bears hurtling through space together so it's fairly removed from Joffrey."

The 22-year-old announced he was retiring from acting earlier this year. But now the show, produced by Gleeson's theatre troupe Collapsing Horse, will begin its run at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin on July 23 before heading over to Edinburgh for the annual Fringe Festival.

"I still feel that I have formally retired from acting because I'm working on this show with old friends from college," he said.

"So it doesn't really feel like work. I don't quite see this as a proper job."

Filming for the next instalment of 'Game of Thrones' is due to kick off in the coming weeks. Gleeson admitted he will miss his fellow cast members as he will not feature in the next series.

"That will be hard," he said. "I'll miss getting the train up to Belfast and meeting all the people in wardrobe and make-up."

Gleeson and his friends, 'Love/ Hate' actor Aaron Heffernan, Cameron MacAulay and Eoghan Quinn, founded Collapsing Horse while studying at Trinity College Dublin.

Their work is largely puppet-based with Heffernan making the majority of models. "I rustle around in skips with a glue gun and see what happens," he said.

Two of the company's productions, 'Bears in Space' and 'Human Child', will run at the Underbelly venue in Edinburgh this August.

"It's the first time we will have all gone over together," director Dan Colley said. "We're very proud of both of these shows."

Irish Independent