Packed with props from recent NT productions, last year’s South Bank summer essential p(r)op-up is back for another sell-out season that will last until the sun sets on September. As locations go, postcard-perfect views of the Thames and a ringside seat for the Southbank’s always entertaining passagiata are hard to trump and this year, the astro-turfed terrace is larger than before for maximum posing/ people-watching. Sip Sipsmith gin coolers, cups and cocktails, draught Meantime lager and various London-brewed artisan bottled beers, English wines, and order street grub - fish finger sandwich, steak and ale rissoles, sweet potato and chickpea falafel, scotch egg, and boxed salads - at resting actor prices. There's live music on Saturdays at 9 pm, and a special late licence means DJs can play until 2 am at weekends - cue late-night luvvies on the lash, sozzled on the South Bank claiming they're method actors in preparation for a production of The Days Of Wine And Roses, a play and a film starring Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon as a pair of alcoholic lovers. If you spot one familiar luvvie face ahem, 'propping' up the bar, for Pete's sake don’t mention Vicious: the ITV sitcom Frances de la Tour appears opposite Serena McKellan and Derek Jacobi (channeling John Inman in Are You Being Served) is more ‘Gordon Bennet!’ than Alan Bennett - whose new play, People, de la Tour starred in at The Lyttelton this Spring.
National Theatre, Southbank SE1http://tinyurl.com/c96qths
