The AE Harris venue is now closed as the site has been redeveloped.

The metal fabricators AE Harris and Co are now based in West Bromwich. Their contact details can be found in the link below

AE Harris and Co

So our eleven year long adventure @ A E Harris is over. We first presented our installation Of All The People In All The World in the factory workshop spaces on Northwood Street in September 2008. We took over the space as a venue and rehearsal space in January 2009 and moved our office onto the site a few months later. We operated the very substantial space until October 2013 when we handed four workshop spaces back to our landlords A.E.Harris after a valadictory production made especially for the occasion Twilightofthefreakingods. Since that time we have been having productive fun rehearsing, presenting and hosting performances in a 50 seat venue on the site. Now, finally, the whole A.E.Harris site on both sides of Northwood Street has been sold to a firm of property developers. The buildings are still standing, for now, but soon some of them will be bulldozed and all of them will be repurposed. Then, our presence there along with that of A.E.Harris and the firms that occcupied the site will have joined James Watt’s old house as just another set of ghosts on the Jewellery Quarter’s psychogeographic landscape.

2017 brings us the fifth Birmingham Fest and we are excited to be hosting five brilliant performances @AE Harris.

A Positive Life/Dystopia (A Cautionary Tale) – Autin Dance Theatre

A Positive Life is an immersive and interactive dance theatre experience about sex, love and relationships that follows the interpersonal stories of five exceptional performers in dance, spoken word and physical theatre.

Dystopia (A Cautionary Tale) is currently in the research and development phase. It is a thought-provoking dance theatre duet performed by international dance artists Laura Vanhulle and Johnny Autin, looking at our need for connection, compassion and our modern anxieties based on fear and violence.

Friday 14 July, 7PM
To book tickets CLICK HERE

Willis the Poet’s Comedy Extravaganza!! – Rick Sanders aka Willis the Poet

Willis the poet hosts an evening of comic poetry presented by a number of invited stand-up performance poets. This is a new piece of work that primarily involves poets from the West Midlands region to showcase local talent.
Sunday 16 July, 7PM
Tickets £5 on the door

Something About England – Nick Knibb aka The Archbishop

A collection of tales and poetry inspired by music and living in the Midlands in the 1970s. A look back at how times were as a teenager and how they affect us still as adults.

Monday 17 July, 7PM
Tickets £5 on the door or VIA EVENTBRITE

Neighbourhood Watch – Gis a Gander Theatre

Have you ever had a neighbour who has been a pain? What other ‘stuff’ bungles your gravy boat brain? Meet Brassy Brenda and the Bumsville villagers. Guaranteed to have you laughing your long johns off in this eccentric madcap character comedy show. The show includes Bingo, songs and ample opportunities for audience participation.

Saturday 22 July, 7PM
Tickets £5 on the door

S/he/it Happens – Miranda Porter/Le Juice

A comical failure of assimilating gender. Porter’s clown doesn’t know the rules about gender. As if unwatched in their own bedroom, they playfully mash-up elements of gender expression with optimism and naivety. The show is currently in development.

Sunday 30 July, 7PM
Tickets £5 on the door

For details of other Birmingham Fest shows in other venues across the city please visit the Birmingham Fest Website

The next show at AE Harris is brought to you by Livestock

Billy the Kid is the first modern anti-hero.
Two men claim to remember him; Chevron Malaise & Acapulco Beans.
It don’t come back easy.

Billy the Kid – His Life in Music is an unlikely evening of reminiscence presented by two ageing cowboys. It has to be said; the stories don’t quite piece together. But with original songs, electronic soundscapes, re-enactments of famous moments in cowboy history and a wider examination of the quest for notoriety by association, the show makes makes for an original fusion of theatre and late night, off-beat humour.

Featuring musician Rex Horan (Neil Cowley Trio, Jazz Artist of the Year 2013) and writer/performer Chris Johnston (RSC and Co-Director of Livestock) Rex and Chris have been working together over several years exploring ways to fuse music, theatre and comedy.

​’Livestock’s latest production is a mash-up of vaudevillian comedy double act, fantastic music and song narrative and some imaginative performance choices which, taken together, make for a sublimely hilarious event.’
Ian Wilkie, University of London

‘It was just great. So entertaining, interesting, hilarious and left us both feeling inspired. Great chemistry between you guys too. Shall be raving about it to friends that’s for sure.’ Jodie Platts

‘Best thing I saw all Fringe Festival this, and possible last year too!’
Jason, Brighton Fringe 2013

After the launch of Kiln and great performance of Fishhead the next event @ A E Harris is almost upon us.

Gibraltar, The Falkland Islands, Crimea… Rockall?

In the wilderness of the Atlantic Ocean there lies an uninhabitable rock. A rock called Rockall. Four countries claim to own both the rock and the oil reserves that potentially surround it (and the fish. Mustn’t forget the fish).

One day, a seemingly innocuous press statement from the Icelandic Government sets the wheels in motion for a diplomatic crisis on a grand scale. In this worryingly believable political satire, egos, sex and crossed wires conspire to bring the world to the brink of war, with Britain’s indecisive Foreign Secretary at the very heart of it. Can he hold his nerve and guide the world towards a peaceful solution?

A new play written by David Gray and directed by Jen Davis, both supported artists on the Birmingham REP Foundry Programme.

News! Things have been happening @ A E Harris. True, Chapman Driver Seating (a trading division of A E Harris & Co. (Birmingham) Ltd.) are now knocking out stacks of beautiful driver seats where once we all knocked out art BUT next door, devious art moves are afoot. (more…)

To mark the transition of @ A E Harris from large to small format venue Stan’s Cafe will be creating a special, site-specific piece with a cast of guest performers from companies who have performed in the venue over the last five years. The show will be performed on 10th and 12th October. The title is yet to be announced. Please save the date.

From mid-October @ A E Harris will be converting to become a more intimate venue. A E Harris (Birmingham) Ltd. are taking back the spaces known as Europe, Asia, Africa and The Americas in order to increase their manufacturing capacity and meed increased demand. Stan’s Cafe will continue to occupy the remainder of the venue and operate Australia as a rehearsal space and venue with an audience capacity of 50.

We are no longer taking bookings for the large spaces but are keen to hear from people interested in making independent theatre in Australia.

Many of us will have fond memories of shows in the ‘large format’ @ A E Harris and in order to celebrate this space a final time Stan’s Cafe will be making and performing a special show across the venue… details to be announced SOON.

As well has hosting performances @ A E Harris is often used as a rehearsal venue for shows that are staged elsewhere. We were proud to host some early rehearsals for a new show After the Event by Work In Progress. This is a free outdoor performance that starts at 20:00 on 19th & 20th July in Price’s Square, Northfield High Street. If you arrive an hour early there is entertainment and food laid on to get you ready for the main event. If you have youngsters and 20:00 is a bit late then a matinee is what you need and fortuitously there is one on the Saturday at 13:00 (build up from 12:00). We wish them well.