Tell Me – Sadiq Ali Company / The Place, London

In Tell Me, Sadiq Ali Company combines Chinese pole, theatre and dance to explore an HIV diagnosis with striking visual confidence.

Tell Me

I really liked Tell Me by Sadiq Ali Company. It’s a bold blend of unflinching subject matter and physical prowess across circus, theatre and dance. The hour-long devised work follows a young woman as she navigates an HIV diagnosis. Shifting from an initial setting in the present day, the piece looks back to the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 90s as she begins to process her fear, shame, sadness and uncertainty. Importantly, this is a subject close to Ali’s own heart. He has experience of an HIV diagnosis himself, and that lived knowledge gives the work focus and weight.

The visual elements of the production are very strong. A small red cube acts as a stand-in for the diagnosis, handed to characters as they confront a new reality. Scenography by Aslı Özüak develops this visual metaphor further, as cubes of different sizes form the only set furniture. And they’re not just furniture, critically. The circus skills showcased in Tell Me centre on Chinese pole. This traditional acrobatic form involves climbing, sliding and holding positions on vertical poles. Here, those poles are the sides of the cubes. The red cubes become, in the performers’ hands, tools of confinement, freedom and release. Sadiq Ali, Phoebe Knight and Jonah Russell scale, spin, drop, reach and dance with control and confidence. There aren’t really enough verbs to fully describe their commanding and very impressive performances.

This may out me as an undiscriminating person in circus circles and I almost hesitate to add it, but I went to Cirque du Soleil at the Royal Albert Hall the week before I saw Tell Me (I did not get around to reviewing it, apologies!). Tell Me felt on a different scale entirely in its use of Chinese pole as storytelling, and in the apparent complexity of its choreography. Just in case you were wondering which contemporary circus performance was right for you.

A Battle Not Yet Won

As I’ve referred to above, Tell Me is not all circus. There are tender moments of theatre and dance throughout, alongside judicious use of voiceovers. These help fill out parallel stories. One belongs to a young man for whom an HIV diagnosis was ultimately a death sentence. The other follows our young woman today, facing a very different future. The quickly-adapted costumes, also by Aslı Özüak, are excellent, particularly during the 1980s sequences. Through them, the choreography and the performances, the joy and freedom of a time before HIV and AIDS feel magnetic.

Watching this work, I was reminded in a way of the last performance I saw at The Place, Exquisite Noise by Van Huynh Company. Both works refuse to make the audience comfortable. Quite the opposite, in fact. Jamie Heseltine’s lighting design and Guy Veale’s sound design are, at times, decidedly uncomfortable. This works well alongside a key message of Tell Me: that, despite medical advances, prejudice and a burden of shame persist when it comes to HIV. The battle has not yet been won. As other reviewers have noted, personifying this as a devil is perhaps the weaker element of the production. That said, it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of a clever, compelling, impressive and thoughtful work.

My MimeLondon viewing is off to a great start for 2026!

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4/5

Tell Me on at The Place as part of MimeLondon until 24 January 2026 only. MimeLondon continues until 1 February 2026 – more info and tickets here.