The theatre community of Iranian held a gathering on Thursday afternoon in Tehran’s City Theatre complex to remember the great Iranian director Hamid Samandarian who passed away on July 12.

Another gathering was held in Samandarian’s house and workshop as well.

Presstv: Veteran Iranian stage director and translator Hamid Samandarian has died at the age of 81 in the country’s capital, Tehran. Born in 1931, the renowned artist passed away on July 12, 2012 after a long battle with illness.

Samandarian learned the basics of theater under the supervision of some of Germany’s greatest masters.

Upon returning to Iran, he started teaching theater and trained many talented stage actors.

The Iranian artist staged numerous dramas during his lifetime, including No Exit by Jean Paul Sartre, Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams and Marriage of Mr. Mississippi by Friedrich Durrenmatt.

The production of Durrenmatt’s Old Lady’s Visit in Tehran about five years ago, was Samandarin’s last dramatic experience.

Expressing condolences for the death of Hamid Samandarian, Farshid Ebrahimian, professor and translator of theater said Iranian theater owes its meaning and existence to figures like Samandarian. Ebrahimian also assessed late Samandarian’s translations of Brecht as the best.

Ebrahimian said: “The loss of this great man is irremediable for Iranian theater and I hope that all veteran artists be sound and well and we should witness loss of no great master.”

He continued: “Master Samandarian was one of the great figures Iranian theater relied on, one of the great men who had kept the fire of theater burning with their activities and sacrifices and by staging great works.”

“The identity of Iranian theater depends on the presence of master Samandarian and other figures like Mahis Oskuei, Bahram Beyzaei, Abdolhussein Noushin, Ezzatollah Entezami, and Ali Nasirian. Our theater today is still nourishing from their achievements.”

Ebrahimian added: “I came to know him first in 1973 at the Faculty of Fine Arts when I saw a pamphlet of a translation by Master Samandarian. Before that I only knew him as a director and professor. That pamphlet was a translation of an avant-garde play in fluent Persian that was peerless in its kind. The translation showed that the translator had mastery over the source language, culture and art, as the latent concepts in the original play had been highlighted in the translation. Without the translator’s expertise, the intertextual meaning would have been lost.”

Ebrahimian then referred to the performances directed by Samandarian: “Master Samandarian often performed the plays that he had translated himself and to the consensus of the spectators, the main concepts and themes were always conveyed to the audiences.”

He added: “Without him we would have been denied the universal concepts presented in the works of playwrights such as Friedrich D rrenmatt.”

Referring to his translations of Brecht, he explained: “Hamid Samandarian had studied and lived in Germany for a long time and directly experienced Brecht’s distance. Due to his studies in Germany he was totally familiar with Berthold Brecht’s world and ideology and had truly reflected these in his translations.”

Hamid Samandarian, eminent translator and professor of theater, passed away on Wednesday morning at age 81 of liver cancer in his house. The burial ceremony will start on Saturday morning (July 14) at Samandarian Hall of Iranshahr Theater.

Photos by Mohsen Rezaei and Ali Mehrabi, Mehr News Agency