Thinking of conversations in the Hampstead Theatre, and since I haven’t been consulted on the matter in any shape or form, I would like to take this opportunity of putting forward my ideas for the future of the Hampstead Theatre – at this time of change. What is needed in North London, it seems to me, is a centre for theatre-making. The whole world is popping with theatre and performance-makers – some of whom have already appeared in this column. We spend enough time in the bar – why not allow us into the rest of the building? Nothing wrong with this notion of putting on plays of course - (should it be this sort of play, that sort of play, or the other sort of play?) – but by and large that period of literary management of theatre spaces has served its time. Nobody wants it any more. Why try to hold on to it against the torrent of other kinds of work? Why not let it at least be infected, stirred up and modulated by what is happening in the world? The best plays have in any case often been born out of intensely theatrical situations (early days of the Royal Court) – in which all sorts of other aspects of the work (design, approaches to acting, relation to work in mainland Europe) were being re-considered at the same time. I shall return to this subject, in due course, as time allows!