TWEED Theatre’s production of Wojtek the Bear at the Eastgate Theatre, tells the story of a bear, saved by `Polish refugee soldiers in WW2, from a life of cruel ill use dancing for entertainment at sideshows.

His adventures , ranging from smashing up the soldiers’ canteen in search of honey to blundering through a washing line of ladies’ smalls, culminate in the Italian campaign of WW2.

The actor playing the bear does not wear a bear costume as the whole concept depends, as in the stage version of War Horse, on creating the sense of a creature and his tangled relationship with his soldier mentor and adopted “Mama.”

Eventually demobbed to Winfield Resettlement Camp near Duns, Wojtek’s future looks problematic. What price a bear in the straitened times of postwar Scotland? Even his Polish companions are seen as surplus to requirements after all their valiant efforts for the Allied cause.

Edinburgh Zoo becomes Wojtek’s home after many adventures. The bear is a star attraction for decades until his death in the 1960s, still sometimes visited by old wartime comrades for a drink, a ciggie or even- very frowned upon- a wrestle like old times. Sam French, the play’s producer, saw the bear as a two year old on a visit with his father!

This story covers the range of feelings from joyful hilarity to poignant despair until, at the end, Wojtek and Piotr his soldier mentor, reach a kind of peace.

Tickets are still available for this tremendous theatrical experience at the Eastgate at 7.30pm tonight (Friday) and tomorrow.