@ A E Harris

I’m not sure about this place, it’s a little cold and I don’t find it that welcoming but I’ve been to see some great Theatre plays and productions and I’ve been impressed by those. The reason why I say I’m confused about this place is I’m not sure whether it should really be a place to house plays/​productions but I guess the industrial feel about it; is what makes the place special.
The venue is huge and there’s a lot of space for large productions. I find it too big and there’s been times when I’ve been there and thought the space was a little too large for the play taking place. It still consists of a lot of the old features; it’s a great place for providing that sense of heritage.
I’d definitely say it’s a place to visit if you want to see a play in a different type of venue.

AE Harris as the previous reviewer has stated in an empty venue that’s hired out for community projects and events. Yes it’s the home of Stan’s Café, the Theatre Company and also houses festivals such as Be Festival.
However, I’d like to give another view of the venue as I organised the first Birmingham Vintage Festival there. It’s an astonishing place to hold events in. For one it’s huge and you can use one or all of the rooms depending on what’s available and two it’s a blank canvass so you can leave it looking industrial or lay down carpets and have low lighting for a fashion show.
Charlotte and the people that run it will do everything they can to make your event a success and the Vintage Festival went down really well with locals and city shoppers coming. We even had a stage and had two bands playing (the theme was 1970s).
Do check it out whether it’s to see a unique production or hold an event there.

Bit of a weird one this because despite visiting A E Harris on several occasions — either to see theatre productions or fierce/​be festival performances I’m still not entirely sure what it is. I know that originally it housed metal fabricators and according to people I’ve spoken to this is still an existing company who lease out their old factory to the theatre company Stan’s Café — hence the name. So to clarify I will be reviewing the venue rather than the metal fabricators here. Although I’m sure the metal fabricators are just lovely too. I should probably also explain here that Stan’s Café are really rather brilliant and have worked on a range of projects over the years — their latest production is about the 2008 banking scandal but set in the Netherlands in the 17^th century… They also have a show at the RSC (it was at A E Harris first though) called Of All The People In All The World which uses mounds of rice to bring statistics to life. Anyway back to the space — as a venue it’s large. It still holds many of its original features and a large courtyard area. There are several larger rooms and a smaller studio theatre. The whole thing is located behind a set of gates just up from the RBNA. It is essentially a performance venue and rehearsal space close to the city centre whose aim is (and this is taken from their website because it explains it so much more succinctly than I ever could) «to host projects which, for reasons of scale, expense, messiness or outrageous oddness could find no other home in the city.» If you get a chance to see something there make sure you go — it’s bound to be intelligent and different.