Fairlight

Join us on the courts for a new electropop musical shedding light on the untold queer history of tennis.

Alexandra Taylor and Michael Wolters’s Fairlight straddles art and activism, retelling the origin story of lawn tennis as an opposites-attract queer love story.

The name Fairlight refers to the house in Edgbaston, Birmingham where Augurio Perera lived and where he and Harry Gem invented lawn tennis in the 1860s. Their relationship - a blend of friendship and potential romance - forms a central thread in the musical, which aims to give a voice to those unheard and unseen by shining a light on the stories that history left out.

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.

Please note, we have changed the venue to The Old Library in Digbeth due to the potential for inclement weather during the performance.

Seating will be a mix of floor mats and chairs with some standing room, allocated on a first come, first served basis. If you would like to guarantee yourself a chair, please bring a camping/folding chair with you.

This event launches a tour of Fairlight around the UK, visit http://www.fairlightmusical.co.uk/ for more details.

Thank you to Calthorpe Estates for supporting this event.