The designs of RSC director Adrian Noble and his cohorts at Stratford are nothing if not bold. For £100m they will demolish and rebuild the Memorial Theatre - with 200 fewer seats - but quintuple the size of their nearby studio theatre, The Other Place. They will give their much-loved second house, the Swan, backstage space for the first time, find a proper home for their new postgraduate training school, the RSC Academy, and generally create a “theatre village” - a rural South Bank - in the heart of Warwickshire.

They have £50m ringfenced within the Arts Council Lottery fund, claim to be well on with raising the rest, have a good architect in Holland’s Erick van Egeraat, are keen to forge ahead. The work could start in 2003, and by 2008, Stratford could be completely transformed. But there are problems, as Noble concedes.

First, he must convince English Heritage that the RSC’s live theatre - its performances - are more important than its dead theatre - the brick fortress of the existing building, designed by Elizabeth Scott and hated by generations of theatre folk. Not only the auditorium needs rebuilding, however. Because more space is needed at both front and back of house, none of the old 1932 building can remain: the new house must move forward on the site to make room. And English Heritage is known to be keen to preserve the cramped Art Deco foyers and spiral staircase at the front of the existing theatre. Full and frank discussions are imminent.