Sadiq Ali Company: Tell Me review – poignant tale of sex, revelry and glistening abs amid the 80s Aids crisis

2026-01-26 - 11:23

The Place, London Sadiq Ali’s intimate dance piece follows a woman with an HIV diagnosis at a time when it was misunderstood and stigmatised 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. Continue reading...