Theatre Director
"I'm happy to predict that Ali Pidsley will be a familiar name for theatregoers in ten years' time" Catherine Love, Whats on Stage, 2014
a girl in school uniform (walks into a bar)
"It’s expertly balanced and, as baffling as the play is at first, it’s ultimately easy to see how completely this play is doing its own thing, how fully and fantastically it’s committing to its characters and world." Tim Bano, Timeout - 4 stars, 2018
"a frightening and resonant dystopian drama staged, in part, in the dark" Francesca Peschier, The Stage - 4 stars, 2018
"Ali Pidsley’s production is an edge-of-your-seat example of the power of small spaces." Alice Saville, Exeunt, 2018
"Pidsley’s production also suggests the firing of synapses, memory loss and the way in which the mind sometimes tries to shut out trauma.
What’s not in doubt is a real sense of fear and the play’s deeply moral heart, which suggests that even in times when the truth is slippery, it is well worth searching out." Lyn Gardner, The Guardian - 4 stars, 2018
blasted
"Up-and-coming young director Ali Pidsley's new production of Sarah Kane's 1995 debut play Blasted is fascinating in myriad ways." Andrew Haydon, Whats on Stage - 4 stars, 2017
"the show is intelligently directed by Alasdair Pidsley, whose brave and committed cast — Nigel Barrett (Ian), Verity Kirk (Cate) and Nima Taleghani (Soldier) — do Kane’s play proud. Despite the low budget, the integrity of the performances carry the show, and the terrific soundtrack is a definite plus" Aleks Sierz, 2017
some people talk about violence
"the ensemble, led by director Ali Pidsley, seem to have it as part of their rehearsal methodology to come up with a series of games they can play in the course of performing the text which will form transitions between scenes, keep things real for the audience, and pitch the actors’ energies at the appropriate level for each successive moment in the overall shape of the piece...you should just go and see how the story is told – I am certain that in the years to come you’ll be glad that you did." Duska Radosavljevic, Exeunt, 2015
"SPTAV feels like a company picking up Brecht’s ideas about political theatre, inspecting them scientifically for veracity, effortlessly working out how that could work in a modern UK context, and then just making this incredibly astute, searching, honest, raw artwork, but presented in such a way as to never once draw attention to either cleverness or difficulty. It’s just as entertaining and fun as it is entirely serious and political." Andrew Haydon, Postcards From the Gods, 2015
"Formally inventive second show from a talented, confident young company" Natasha Tripney, The Stage - 4 stars, 2015
nothing
"Smartly, director Alasdair Pidsley seats his cast among us, around an empty stage, so that they only declare themselves actors when they start speaking. That leaves no room for escape: these troubled, jangling individuals are just like us." Matt Trueman, Financial Times - 4 stars, 2014
"It's not just the stories themselves, but how they are told that is of interest here in a clever, minimalist production in which each monologue can be performed by any actor. Likewise, the way they interlace and cut across each other is not preset. It gives the whole thing a feel of being new-minted. Even more fascinatingly, the performers never directly use the performance space, but speak from among us. As a result, however much we resist what they say, we cannot avoid the sense that we are part of the problem – and maybe part of the solution." Lyn Gardner, The Guardian - 4 stars, 2014