I visited the Edge for an arts evening and was thrilled by what I found…read more Combining both a presentation by a local forrager and baker, a VJ or visual artist and a full size cinema screen with oil drum fires and free punch, i'd recommend the edge to anyone who wants to experience a distinctly different evenings entertainment. Inside there's what looks slightly ramshackle looking kitchen and toilet facilities but edge made the most of the large yard and really hosted a great event which will live on my memory as a memerable evening in Birmingham. I wonder what edge has up it's sleeve next!

The Edge is another one of those venues hidden away on the Bradford Street side of Digbeth. Be…read moreprepared to explain to a taxi driver exactly how to get there, and if you don't know how to get there yourself, the best thing to say is that it's up the road from The Fountain pub on Cheapside. I've been to this venue for an array of different performances and festivals such as Flatpack and Network Music Festival - and I think the space is perfect for emerging talent. I've never experienced a bad night at this venue, and I've also DJed here once. I'm usually quite scared and nervous when DJing, but the relaxed atmosphere contained inside The Edge gave me great confidence. Although it is another abandoned warehouse, there's this amazing secret vibrancy kept inside which is different from other venues, mainly expressed from the friendly staff and people. There are also permanent art fixtures on the walls, and the warehouse itself seems a lot cleaner and tidier inside when compared to other converted factories. The Edge also sells delicious brownies and other cakes and sweets, which take you back to your childhood days. Keep your eyes peeled for events here.

As it's own space. I wanted to add the The Patrick Centre for the performing arts to yelp. Accessed…read morethrough the upper floor in Birmingham Hippodrome's main foyer, this is a 200-seater auditorium more intimate experience than the huge show space of the Hippodromes main theatre. Jord M and I won tickets to see Beautiful Thing at The Patrick Centre thanks to Vicky O (Our Birmingham Community Manager and thanks to the team at Birmingham Hippodrome for the Tickets!) We were here on press night! Which meant a free programme and drinks in the VIP Lloyd room before the show and during the interval. Within five minutes of our arrival, I saw actress Charlie Brooks by the stage door, and resisted having a photograph rather than crashing her conversation. My night was already made!! If you don't know Beautiful Thing, is a 1993 play by Jonathan Harvey, about two teenage boys finding love on a south London council estate. Although current for the time it was made, it is really now a play set in the 1990s with lots of nods to the culture of the day. 1990s copies of The Guardian, Hello! magazine, reading the problem page in gay magazines and finding gay venues in classified directory all add to the authenticity of the time. Charlie Brooks who plays Janine Butcher in EastEnders is BRILLIANT as Sandra, a single, hard-working mother with a string of ex boyfriends. She is funny, warm and much more loveable than the hard faced character she plays in the soap. I was really excited to see her in this role made famous in the film by Linda Henry who is Shirley Carter in EastEnders. Her son Jamie is played by the great Sam Jackson from Skins, and he really is believable as Sandra's child who is starting to want to explore his own sexuality. Acting-wise there is lots of crossover with BBC EastEnders. Their neighbour's son Ste is played by excellent Thomas Law who played Peter Beale version 4 in EastEnders. His awkward sexual awakening, and the homophobic violence from his family, remind you that this was first performed a year after being homosexual was declassified as a mental illness in the UK (in 1992.) Sandra's hippyish boyfriend, Tony, is played smoothly by Gerard McCarthy who played Kris Fisher in Hollyoaks. Tony is "right on" about too understanding about everything and you feel like he is a bit of a yes man. And finally the cast is rounded out by the talented Vanessa Babirye, as the other neighbour Leah. Leah's obsession with the music of Mama Cass provides the even more retro soundtrack to the play. While this is really Jamie and Ste's love story for me the performance of Charlie Brooks stole the show. If you get chance to see it around the country then GO SEE IT!

I'd finished watching a Canadian band that I'd supported called The Wilderness Of Manitoba who were…read moretouring the UK. They said that I should catch them again when they played the next week at The Edge in Digbeth. I though I knew my city inside out, but obviously not, as I'd never heard of The Edge. When the night came, I took a wander down the back streets of Digbeth looking for the venue. It took me a while to find it, as it is set back a bit from the road by a long drive. Once inside I found the place had an underground feel to it. A makeshift bar was selling drinks at well-below pub prices, the walls and floor were decorated with 3-D objects and while the band played their set un-amplified, people listened quietly or slipped outside to have a cigarette on one of two sofas underneath a palm tree. The Edge has developed since then, but they are keeping true to their name by continuing with edgy shows, exhibitions, performances and performance workshops that you won't see elsewhere.

Riverside Performing Arts is a theatre company and a training school, associated with RIverside…read moreChurch in Moseley. It's the first church-based Performing Arts School in the UK to offer a one year full time training course to young Christians aged 18-30, so students not only learn and develop in their performing arts skills (acting, directing, music, devising etc.) but also in their Christian faith. It has a good community focus and has performed in schools, theatres and community centres both locally and on tour around the UK. Their shows are always enjoyable, well-produced and imaginative, and also always relevant. They present a lot of issue-based work that really strikes a chord with the kind of things particularly (though not exclusively) young people are dealing with today. It's theatre that aims to get alongside people and make an impact - with a big heart and a smart head.

Another great, small-scale, Birmingham-based theatre company. Not only that, but one that has a…read moremassive social impact: Geese have established a great reputation as one of the UK's leading theatre companies who work with offenders and youth at risk and since 1987 has worked in more than 150 custodial institutions and with 42 probation areas. They produce excellent issue-based performances as well as workshops, training and development for offenders and staff theory. Their work encourages these groups to explore their beliefs, thoughts, feelings and their impact, in order to change aspects of behaviour. Their performances are always challenging - aimed at provoking interaction and questions from the audience. All in all, its good theatre for a good cause. Keep up the good work, Geese!