HOME...

I was lucky enough to have a behind the scenes tour of HOME, Manchester's new arts centre, yesterday. It's an amalgamation of the old Library Theatre and the Cornerhouse Cinema and gallery space. Both institutions will be sadly missed but we have this new facility that will, hopefully, bring a buzz to the quiet bit of the city centre where it has been sited. For those not sure where it is, it is about 2 minutes walk from the new, improved, super-dooper Deansgate/Castlefield tram station, under the shadow of the Hilton Tower.

I may be doing some work with them. It has five cinemas, two theatres, a huge exhibition space for the art which spills out into the public areas, bars and cafes. We saw all that but also got into the offices, the rehearsal rooms, the green room, wardrobe, changing rooms and so on. It's all state of the art and pretty impressive.

I'm looking down from the control room into the larger of the two theatres. It was a long way down, I got giddy. But theatre is also about illusion and when we were on the stage (second picture), it looked considerably smaller and more intimate.