Presently being built by Bovis Lend Lease, Leicester's new performing arts centre, Curve, designed by Rafael Vinoly Architects, is due to open in late 2008.   It consists of two interlocking performance spaces in a figure-of-eight configuration, with a shared stage area at the intersection of the loops.   The backstage workings of the theatre are on public display, occuring as they do in an outer shell which can be viewed through the glass-fronted facade from the street, or engaged with whilst circulating within the building.Curve replaces Leicester Haymarket Theatre, which was known for its outstanding musicals.   Notable productions included Me and My Girl; Follies; Merrily We Roll Along and most recently The Wizard of Oz, directed by Paul Kerryson, who will become co-artistic director of Curve with Kully Thiarai. From the window to the left we see another award winning building, the Masjid Umar mosque, which was completed in 2000 to a design by local architects Kent Porter Warren.   Leicester was once a centre of the textiles industry, and is now celebrated as one of Britain's most multicultural cities, with more than 25% of its population originating from South Asia.