OK - so there may be 'no such thing as a free lunch', but during the school holidays there is certainly plenty of free fun to be had on London's South Bank...
Yep - the oversized astro-turfed armchairs are back! From now until 11th September, The National Theatre's outdoor 'Square' venue offers a varied programme of free performances including theatre, dance, performance art, circus skills and - well - downright silliness (custard pie throwing!)
To give a flavour of what's on offer - Jacques Tati meets Harold Lloyd in the hour-long silent-caper-scape "The Station".
The innovative production, staged by circus-skills veterans Bash Street harnesses a host of 'silent' slapstick tropes (yes - there are gangsters with violin cases, a stolen Mona Lisa, a demure heroine who gets roped to the train tracks, hi-jinx with a pyramid of luggage and a hapless hero suspended from a clock face).
The silent action is knitted together by uber-accordian-player Julian Gaskell, who from behind the thicket of his handlebar moustache supplies live incidental music, steam jets and imaginative sound effects for the whole team.
The deceptively simple set is a slick machine which brilliantly facilitates the cast's physical comedy - culminating in a live train crash!
Once you've finished laughing... cool off in the 'Appearing Rooms' water sculpture outside the Queen Elizabeth Hall and check out the amazing 'Urban Fox' - a giant-sized straw sculpture from rural Cheshire which peers down quizzically towards Tracey Emin from the roof of the South Bank Centre...
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