The Big Issue

ADEEL AKHTAR

I was 16 when I first found the idea of performing. We were doing Hamlet at school and I got a smaller part than I wanted. But I still got the gravedigger, who is really good. I enjoyed it and wanted to do more, so I got together with some mates and we put on a production of The Homecoming by Harold Pinter in the tiny little theatre at school. I remember feeling like I was connecting with lots of people. And that’s a really lovely feeling. At the start of The Homecoming, we put on a track called The First Big Weekend by Arab Strap. This was the first time I was getting into music as well. Bands and plays – my brain was opening up to something I would only revisit later on.

But I was not sure the stuff that was mapped out for me was the path I wanted to

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