In the programme note for Tell Me, its creator Sadiq Ali says that 2025 was the year he might have been expected to die of Aids-related complications, were it not for advances in medicine. Instead here he is, muscled and strong, wound round a Chinese pole, suspending himself in the air, abs glistening.
Ali is also thriving as an artist. His last show, The Chosen Haram, garnered five-star reviews, and he has just officially launched his own circus/theatre company. This new work, Tell Me, follows a woman with an HIV diagnosis, which is something still stigmatised and misunderstood, especially outside the LGBTQ+ community. It is a subject that’s personal to Ali but he doesn’t put himself at the centre. Instead Phoebe Knight is the protagonist, joined by Ali and Jonah Russell, and along with a clever set made from cube-shaped frames that double as poles and trapezes to climb and swing from, they portray a coherent story and evoke some stinging emotions.
To contrast with the present day, we are sucked back to the synth-soundtracked 1980s, to the febrility of fear and shame as Aids became public enemy number one, and people with a diagnosis were heartbreakingly shunned by friends and family. This show was originally made as an outdoor performance (premiered at Norfolk and Norwich festival last year) but a black box theatre allows for a darker atmosphere, actually and figuratively.
Friendship, revelry, nightlife and sex are played out in movement across the floor and vertically up the poles, until the characters end up facing their demons – rather literally – with Ali dressed in horns and knee-high PVC heelless platforms. The first half of the show feels smart and sharp in terms of theatrical choices; the use of music, sound, set, text and dance, to deftly delineate what’s happening. Once we descend into murkier territory with the devilish minotaur creature, it plateaus for a while.
Tell Me is not ultimately a story of triumph or transcendence, it’s one of love, support and acceptance, with some poignant intimate moments. It’s also a well put together piece of theatre, and there is no doubt much more from Ali to come.
• At Pavilion Theatre, Worthing, on 6 February, and Edinburgh Studio theatre, 9-10 February
