Rokneddin Khosrawi Buried on Friday

Elham Pavehnejad, who was presenter of the ceremony, read a message by his wife Simin Khosrawi and messages by his students as well as those by Jamal Mirsadeghi and Behrouz Baghaei.

Iraj Rad, former head of Iran Theater Forum, expressed condolences on his demise, saying that his prolific career influenced Iran theater tremendously but “what is a source of surprise is that a person who lived out of Iran for 20 years…still has so many fans”.

Mr Rad, a member of the board of directors of Iran Theater Forum, Mr Khosrawi would live in the history of Iran Theater forever thanks to educating students, many of them are among the noted figures of Iran theater today.

Ali Moradkhani, deputy culture minister for artistic affairs, expressed condolences, saying that given the status Mr Khosrawi occupied among theater artists, his demise made many artists distressed. “Any artist who has seen him in person describes him as a unique man.”

Pavenejad also apologized for the change in the timing of funeral, which had earlier planned to be on Thursday, because of the ceremony for the firefighters who were martyred in Tehran’s Plasco Building fire.

Akbar Zanjanpour was the next who delivered speech about Mr Khosrawi, saying that he was an artist who talked to his people but Alzheimer drained him into a strange loneliness who made him to die in another country.  

Mr Zanjanpour added that he was a man who stood for his views and suffered a lot in this path.

The actor of “Sizwe Bansi Is Dead” by Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard, which was directed by Mr Khosrawi after the 1979 Islamic revolution, said that he and Behrouz Baghaei played 23 characters in the piece in an accomplished way thanks to the late director that Africans who saw the show were surprised that he played the role so real despite not ever travelling to Africa.  

Mr Khosrawi was one of the most influential figures in Iran contemporary theater who trained many students and directed lots of pieces, which would be etched in the theater history of Iran.

He was graduated from Alborz High School in 1949, studying law at Tehran University for two years. He left his law education unfinished in 1951 to study Persian literature at Tehran University.

Dr Khosrawi staged pieces such as “Valley Shadow”, “Silence of Sea”, “Picnic in War Front”, “Endgame”, “Behind Windows”, “Hello & Goodbye” and “Joan of Arc” before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.    

He also directed “Sizwe Bansi Is Dead” after the revolution in which Mr Zanjanpour played an acclaimed role.

Mr Khosrawi immigrated to London in 1981.

Ali Moradkhani, deputy culture minister for artistic affairs, Mahdi Shafiee, director general of the Dramatic Arts Center, Saeed Asadi, secretary of 35^th Fadjr International Theater Festival, were among officials attending the ceremony. Ali Rafiee, Hormuz Hedayat, Reza Babak, Masoud Rayegan, Roya Taymourian, Hassan Pourshirazi, Behzad Farahani, Iraj Rad and Shabnam Moghadami were some of the theater artists who took part at the ceremony.

The memorial service of Mr Khosrawi was held on Saturday.