But will it work as a place to experience theatre? I think so. The new auditorium succeeds in carrying over a lot of the feel of the old. Where the big difference comes is in everything outside the auditorium. The previous theatre was a three-dimensional definition of the word "cramped". The new one, while not exactly huge, is positively generous in contrast. You can tell just by glancing at the plan of the building: there's a lot of front-of-house and back-of-house, with the house itself buried in the middle. This is a theatre designed to make money by means other than just selling tickets.

There's another definition of theatre, which is to regard it as a manufacturing process. Theatres are factories, where the product is - or should be - more important than the building. Now that real factories - such as Rolls-Royce's new plant at Goodwood by Nicholas Grimshaw - are becoming essentially theatrical places where the public is invited in, the similarities are getting ever stronger. Looked at in this sidelong way, Bennetts' Hampstead Theatre pitches itself just right. It knows what it's about, it strikes the balance between production and performance with clarity and elegance. And it is clever enough not to try to steal the show.

So now it's down to the actors and directors to prove that Hampstead is hungrier than it now looks. Meanwhile, in an old hut somewhere, some bright theatrical spark of tomorrow is no doubt starting this eternal theatrical process all over again.