Fairlight
Edgbaston Archery and Lawn Tennis Society
14a Westbourne Road, Birmingham B15 3TR
All tickets are offered on a Pay What You Can basis.
There will be standing room, floor mats, and limited seating on chairs — please select your preferred seating type when purchasing your ticket.
Access to the court, clubhouse, and washroom facilities at the venue is not fully accessible. If you have specific accessibility needs, please email us at fairlighttour@gmail.com to discuss them.
There is no parking at the venue. We recommend coming by public transport - bus numbers 23 and 24 from Birmingham city centre stop right by the club. Alternatively, there are two car parks on Highfield Road (B15) which cost around £1 per hour and are a 20-minute walk from the club. There is also on-street parking available. Please allow additional time to source parking on the day.
Fairlight is a brand new electropop musical about queer invisibility in tennis. Join us at the oldest lawn tennis club in the world for the world premiere of this powerful and playful show.
Named after the house where Harry Gem and Augurio Perera first invented the game in the 1860s, Fairlight retells the origin story of lawn tennis as an opposites-attract queer love story. With music inspired by the sounds of the Fairlight CMI, the world’s first commercially available sampler, the songs are interwoven with accounts of Victorian prosecutions of gay men, demonstrations of the rules of lawn tennis and interviews with current LGBT+ tennis professionals.
It’s an entertaining and moving show which explores why sport remains a place where many people struggle to be their authentic selves.
Audiences have said:
“Fantastic, fun, and thought-provoking.”
“Great music and powerful stories.”
“It needs to be seen.”
Tickets will be available via the Fairlight website from 10am Monday 30 June.
Alternatively the direct ticket source link is available on the following page (but please use the 1st link for all visible URLs).
CONTENT:
The performance contains strong material, including the historic defamation and prosecution of LGBT+ people, and references to suicide and discrimination.
WITH THANK YOU TO:
Arts Council England
Birmingham Botanical Gardens
Birmingham City University
Edgbaston Archery & Lawn Tennis Society
Hinrichsen Foundation
John Feeney Charitable Trust
LTA
Pride In Tennis
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire
The Grimmitt Trust
The Marchus Trust
Vaughan Williams Foundation
Warwickshire Tennis
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Created and performed by:
Alexandra Taylor
Michael Wolters
Paul Norman
Oli Clark
Tanna Chamberlain
Tej Brindley
Harry Belton
Produced by:
Jenny Bater-Sinclair
Andrei Mihnea Mandoiu
Tech Producer:
Joseph French