Arifa Akbar on Private Passions with Michael Berkeley 16th October 2022
Arifa Akbar tells Michael Berkeley about her nocturnal life as a theatre critic and her desire to tell the story of her sister's death from tuberculosis.
Arifa Akbar almost never has a quiet night in; as chief theatre critic of the Guardian she is out reviewing a production almost every evening. She also sits on the boards of the Orwell Foundation and of English PEN, and judges prizes including the UK Theatre Awards and the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
In conversation with Michael Berkeley, she discusses the book she wrote about the death of her older sister, Fauzia, from tuberculosis, in which she explores Fauzia’s troubled life and why the medical profession failed to diagnose her illness until it was too late.
Arifa chooses music from Bollywood films which remind her of her childhood, which was split between a prosperous and lively extended family in Lahore and poverty and social isolation in London. And she reveals how, after the death of her sister, she began to explore the tubercular heroines of nineteenth-century opera. Initially repelled by the glamorization of these women dying awful deaths, she has now come to love the music of Verdi and Puccini.
Producer: Jane Greenwood
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 3
-
LIVE
Fresh and Fit
54 minutes agoAfter Hours w/ Donovan Sharpe
5,805 watching -
LIVE
SNEAKO
2 hours agoSNEAKO X MYSTERY CHRISTIAN GUEST
8,378 watching -
13:37
Plan Bri Uncut
11 hours agoThe Woman Behind The Viral HAWK TUAH Meme Speaks Out For The First Time
18.6K46 -
LIVE
Drew Hernandez
2 hours agoMELTDOWN: LEFTISTS PANIC AFTER SCOTUS TRUMP RULING
2,563 watching -
1:42:30
Fresh and Fit
2 hours agoDonovan Sharpe Returns
18.7K24 -
1:30:05
Kim Iversen
3 hours agoWeekend at Biden's: Jill and Hunter To Keep Propping Up Old Joe, SCOTUS Rules Govt Can Censor on Social
30.9K76 -
28:43
Stephen Gardner
3 hours ago🔴BREAKING: Obama is TERRIFIED of THIS COVER UP Leaking!
18.2K123 -
35:29
Candace Owens
5 hours agoWhy I Left This Religion | Candace Ep 16
26.3K95 -
1:00:59
Lou Dobbs
6 hours agoLou Dobbs Tonight 7-1-2024
34.2K56 -
1:48:30
Donald Trump Jr.
11 hours agoJill & Joe Have Dems Pressing the Panic Button, Taking Your Questions live! | TRIGGERED Ep.150
163K351