From: peyman@luther.che.wisc.edu (Peyman Pakdel)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian
Subject: "The Successor" by GholAm Hossein SAedi
Date: 14 Apr 92 21:06:58 GMT
Article-I.D.: doug.1992Apr14.160659.28916
Organization: Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison
Originator: peyman@luther.che.wisc.edu

On April, 11th, the theatrical play, "The Successor", written by
GholAm-Hossein SAedi (first performed in Tehran-1973) was performed by
4 Iranian players in Evanston Illinois. The play describes a weakened
dictatorship and 3 individuals who are apparently the leaders of the
opposition movement. The whole play is based on the discussion among
these three leaders on the subject of determining who the next
successor should be. These discussions are rather comic and entertaining.
Finally, their fruitless discussions lead nowhere and they fight
so much against one another that the weakened dictator, gains strength
and recaptures the power. The whole play is full of sarcastic remarks
and comments which keep the viewer entertained throughout the play.

Another very interesting fact about the play was that it was reenacted
in English and so, those who did not understand Parsi, could have
listened to the English translation via headphones.

The following is Excerpts of letters by NAhid SAedi regarding his
brother's life.

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My brother Dr. GolAm-Hossein SAedi was born on January 14 1935 in the
city of Tabriz, Iran. My father taught him reading and writing at the
age of three. Later in the first grade, GolAm Hossein graded the exams
of the second and third grade students... In 1951, his first story was
published in weekly magazine, "DAnesh Amooz."... In 1953, he was in
charge of publishing three local Azarbiejani newspapers of "Faryad",
"So-oud", and "Javanan."... He was first arrested by the security police
for his cultural and political activities at the age of fourteen. He was
later released on bail and was since under constant security
surveillance. In 1953, he entered medical school... and graduated in
1961... After he served in the military, he entered psychiatry training
and finished it in 1967. Then, my two brothers opened their own 24 hour
private psychiatry practice, and mostly treated the poor patients free
of charge. It was during the same time that my brother came to know
the contemporary renowned writers and artists such as Jalla Al-Ahmad,
Simin DAneshvar, Parviz Khanlari, Jamal Mir-SAdeghi, Ahmad Shamlu,
BahrAm Sadeghi... The literary works of my brother includes the plays
of Roofs Under Roofs (1961), Wedding (1962), DallAl BAzi (1965), 
Ay Be-KolAh, Ay BA-KolAh (1970), We Don't Hear (1971), The Successor
(1973), and numerous other plays.

In the spring of 1974 my brother was arrested by SAvAk agents while he
had just arrived in SemnAn for a research trip.
For fifty days we had no words of GholAm Hossein. Mother was so
seriously ill by this time that she was confined to bed... Day and
night mother prayed and offered vows for the poor. When I first got
up in the morning it was impossible  to constrain myself from
sobbing, so uncontrollably that my poor sick mother would say,
"Daughter, don't cry so much, you'll make yourself ill."... After
fifty days, the chief of police phoned... When father gave me the 
telephone, the chief said. "I have good news for you. Thursday at 
4 pm, at Ghezel Qal'e Prison, you can visit your brother... At first
I didn't see him. Suddenly there was my brother with his feet so
badly swollen he could hardly move. He sprang up and threw his arms
around me. We couldn't let go of each other. Until the day I die
I will never forget that moment... After he was freed from prison, he
told us more about what he had been through:

"Each week, we were allowed 5 minutes fresh air. One day when I was
looking out the small window of my cell, I saw a woman prisoner on
her 5 minutes out. She was bending down picking up cigarette butts from
the ground and hiding them in her pocket. It was painful to watch. She
obviously didn't have visiting privileges. I could'nt sleep that night.
I knew when it was the women's turn to go out because I kept watch from
my window. The next week just before that time, I asked the guard,
'could you let me go out today instead of tomorrow? I'm feeling sick.'
I was on a fairly good terms with the guard, so he didn't object. 
While I was in the yard, I quietly dropped cigarettes onto the ground.
When my 5 minutes were up and it was the women's turn, I watched her
gather up the cigarettes. I began doing this regularly."

In 1982 (1361 of Persian calendar), he went to Paris and resided
there. During his 4 years stay in Paris, he wrote several
plays, articles and short stories. He also published the second
series of "alefbA" in Paris. On 23rd of November, 1986, 
while he was working on an article for his lecture, he
was taken to a hospital in Paris because of internal bleeding
and while my father was beside him, he passed away at the
age of 49. He was later buried in PelAshez (spelling?), France, beside
SAdegh HedAyat.
******************************************************************

Excerpts of letters by NAhid SAedi