Tell Me is a rare thing: circus with a heart and a story and a social conscience. When Grace receives an HIV diagnosis, her world shatters. Desperately trying to process what she’s heard, her head skips back to the ’80s, when tombstones were on the TV and a diagnosis often meant a solitary, devastating death sentence. There, she meets Michael, also recently diagnosed, and dealing with his diagnosis in the best way he can.

The stage is set with a single three-dimensional cube, suspended from the ceiling in Summerhall‘s Dissection Room. A club-worthy soundtrack thrums an insistent, infectious beat. Strobe lighting highlights the suspended structure: a springboard or a cage? Through a mix of circus, movement, dance and brief audio interventions, the story of stigma and solitude unfolds.

The movement is a compelling mix of Chinese pole, aerial work and movement thanks to imaginative direction from creator Sadiq Ali and  inventive evocative choreography from Jonathan Lunn and Junior Cunningham. The red cube is a clever consistent motif, via the custom built equipment (Alex Harvey) and tiny hand props, passed between the performers.

Grace (Phoebe Knight) displays a quiet grief that is a lovely counterpart to their fearless strength. Ali’s PVC-clad excesses and stunning aerial work make full use of the clever set design. And Jonah Russell does a great job of transforming from supportive boyfriend to distinctly unsupportive lover confronted with a reality they have the luxury of not needing to face.

There’s a controlled beauty to the sequences that evoke the shock of the diagnosis and its isolating effect that stand in stark contrast to the wild euphoria of the lavish, lascivious fun of club culture, the performers joyously revelling in their new freedoms. The costume design (Aslı Özüak) revels in the sequinned lurex-excesses of the eighties and lights (Jamie Heseltine) and sound design (Guy Veale) match the mood throughout. This is a tribute to a community and a brilliantly bold show that ultimately, has a happy(ish) ending.

Tell Me is at Dissection Room at Summerhall until Mon 31 Aug 2026