Second Fiddle Actor’s Memoirs

The Memoirs of the Second Role Actor is a play written by the legendary figure of Iranian dramatic literature and cinema, Bahram Beyzaie, which narrates the story of two rural men. These two men, named “Zolfaghar” and “Mohebat,” set out for the city in hope of finding work, only to end up with a job where they have to act as stand-ins in support of the Shah’s regime. This work, considered a narrative drama, portrays parts of the social, economic, and political realities of Iran’s history during the 1960s and 1970s and approaches these issues with a dramatic and critical lens. In “The Memoirs of the Second Role Actor,” Bahram Beyzaie does not merely represent and critique but examines this social issue with a structuralist perspective, tracing its impact not only within a particular segment of contemporary history but in a fluid manner that remains tangible across all times. The story, set in the mid-1970s after the White Revolution and land reforms, depicts the economic consequences of political decisions as well as their social effects. Consequences such as certain farmers being left empty-handed, agricultural lands drying up, migration to cities, urban marginalization, poverty, and unemployment. The play’s two main characters, Zolfaghar and Mohebat, are simple folk whose only skill was farming, and their quest for a job in Tehran leads them into a game they unknowingly participate in without being aware of the true nature of their actions.