Q&A with Phoebe Knight
Ahead of the world-premiere performance of Tell Me, the powerful new circus and dance production from Sadiq Ali Company, we sat down with performer Phoebe Knight.
Reimagining the HIV narrative through movement, storytelling, and striking visual design this bold and visually arresting production invites audiences to confront stigma and celebrate resilience. In this Q&A, Phoebe shares insights into the creative process, the emotional weight of challenging stigma, and what they hope audiences will take away from experiencing Tell Me.
How does the production incorporate lived experience and authentic perspectives into the performance?
The director, Sadiq Ali, has lived experience of being diagnosed with HIV, and we have drawn on our experiences of living with different diagnoses for movement creation and performance. We used lived experience to find the concept, and then layered research and our own authentic journeys to colour the work.
In 2026, statistically more heterosexual people, and women more than ever, are being diagnosed with HIV. In the UK we have access to medication that allows people living with HIV to live long, healthy lives, without fear of transmitting the virus to others. With treatment, the stigma of HIV is more dangerous in the UK, than the virus itself.
This stigma can cause people to cope in secret, creating a holding in the body, and sometimes feeling unable to reach out and ask for help. This is something we were able to relate to our experiences of other diagnoses, and was a powerful connection in exploring the narrative and generating material.
Can you walk us through the creative process of fusing circus, dance, and theatre into a cohesive piece? How do these different disciplines inform each other in Tell Me?
This show has evolved through a few stages of R&D, into an outdoor performance, and now being adapted to theatre. We have worked with very talented and experienced movement directors and choreographers that span circus, dance, theatre and opera, to inform and shape the piece, and the work incorporates movement and ideas from the incredible artists involved in the R&Ds and also choreographies from the outdoor work.
The piece has grown by fleshing out movement that is cohesive with the set and the narrative. It is a huge amalgamation of the ideas of all creatives involved throughout the journey. Then these ideas have been pulled, twisted, placed, chopped, reinserted and woven together. Each element, and the form that it takes, is constantly in flux, and ideas have been allowed to come, grow, and leave, without being too precious about them.
The devised approach has been celebratory of everyone's own unique artistry, and the allowance of everybody's ideas into the space to inform the work is what has sculpted the piece into the beautiful mosaic that it is.
Tell Me introduces a newly developed multi-dimensional cube apparatus alongside Chinese pole and aerial work. What inspired this innovation, and how does this equipment serve the storytelling?
The Cube is a fun, unique apparatus that is a creative response to rigging multiple Chinese Poles without the need for lots of rigging points and ground anchors. Its simplicity in shape gives minimal visual noise for maximum visual and movement potential. The cubes become the world the characters move through, and give a visual theme that can serve many
purposes. From being the circus apparatus, to the walls of a room, a representation of movement through time, delineation of space, and representing the virus itself. It has given the piece a coherent anchor and thread, which we could keep coming back to. A simple shape that throws up so many possibilities and incredibly pleasing visual results.
The show aims to challenge stigma and shift audience perceptions around HIV. How do you as performers navigate the balance between advocacy and artistry in bringing this story to life?
Through training around HIV and knowledge of signposting, we can support others. As performers, we can signpost to charities and organisations that are there to help, as to not take sole responsibility for holding the journey of the audience.
We represent physical bodies living and existing outside of the virus. Life goes on, we cope, or don't, we love and are loved. We are all fully rounded humans outside of a diagnosis and it’s about highlighting the life and journeys that we all go on. Keeping it as real and human as possible within quite abstract performance so that people connect with the heart of what’s underneath - we are all just people making our ways through this life. We try not to parody anything, we enhance and articulate what’s already there.
5) What do you hope audiences will take away from experiencing Tell Me?
I want the audience to have a great time seeing a really unique piece of work that is entertaining and engaging, but also makes them think a little bit about how these concepts might apply to themselves. I don’t want to educate but I want people to be touched and when walking away from the show, have a little bit more compassion for themselves and those around them.
Tickets for Sadiq Ali: Tell Me are available now from thelowry.com