THE THEATRE IS EMPTY

Seyavus Aslan passed away during the night of 26-27 June. The farewell ceremony for the great actor took place on the stage of the Azerbaijani Academic Drama Theatre. "A grievous loss" - a halting of the passage of time, no words are appropriate. For those who knew him, who knew him just a little or those who simply saw his films and plays, for everyone Seyavus Aslan was one of the family, one of us. "He will always live in our hearts. The parts he played brought him immortality. This is a grievous loss for Azerbaijani culture," said the actress Zaringar Atakisiyeva.

"Seyavus Aslan's death is a great loss for our theatre and our cinema. Seyavus Aslan had health problems after the death of his wife, Ofelia Aslan, because he was very attached to his wife. I played alongside him in the film "Road Story", where he played the part of my father. The great threesome came together in the play Hicran. May they rest in peace. He was a great figure in the arts world. I would like to express my condolences to his family, friends and fans," was the reaction by the great actor's colleague, Hamida Omarova.

"Until he died he always dreamt that he would come back to the theatre," recalls Israfil Israfilov, director of the Azerbaijani Academic Drama Theatre. "This is a huge loss for all of us who knew Seyavus Aslan and for the millions of his fans."

His friends and his grave illness 

In his latter years the actor was very ill, no longer took part in films and missed the theatre a great deal. In 2009, after an angry row in the theatre (and a theatre cannot exist without rows) Seyavus Aslan had a stroke. Since then he had hardly performed at all. Later, turning the corner a little, that same year Seyavus Aslan wanted to perform in Jean Anouilh's "Antigone" on the stage of the Azerbaijani State National Drama Theatre. But in August 2011 Seyavus Aslan had another stroke. This time the actor was admitted to hospital. In addition he also suffered from sugar diabetes and high blood pressure. Aslan spent his last few months at home. His son, Eldar, said his father would watch television, showed an interest in what was happening and missed the theatre a great deal. His friends - Firangiz Mutallimova, Mehriban Xanlarova, Arif Quliyev, Bahram Osmanov and Marahim Farzalibayov - and his brother Rasul would often call him on the phone. His grandchildren stayed with him frequently. He was clearly not short of an audience.

"I don't have my friend Yasar's voice," Aslan said last year, "but I know that he is very ill and so he cannot ring me." Two months passed and his friend, another great comic actor, Yasar Nuri, passed away.

Relatives were upbeat about Seyavus Aslan's state of health, but at the end of May it deteriorated again and the actor was readmitted to hospital. When he was discharged in mid-June doctors defined his condition as "semi-serious". The illness became chronic.

…That night there was a call to the ambulance station. However, in the words of Cingiz Aslanov, the actor's son, the doctors were unable…

His career

Seyavus Aslan was born on 5 September 1935. His acting career began at the amateur drama circle. In 1954 the 19-year old amateur actor joined a musical comedy troupe and then went to work at the Quba Drama Theatre. The actor's gift for comedy and his stage experience helped him in life and when he became a leading actor of the State Musical Comedy Theatre.

There he created a number of unforgettable theatrical characters and later deservedly became the theatre's artistic leader. Many colleagues remarked about the influence on him of the school of the comic Lutfali Abdullayev, with whom he worked in the cinema and the theatre. From 1984 Seyavus Aslan worked at the Academic Drama Theatre. At the same time he appeared in television shows, playing mostly comic, or more precisely, tragic comedy parts. He played in more than a hundred such shows. Throughout his long life in the theatre and the cinema Seyavus Aslan played many different parts. In time they became more diverse and one felt a certain ambiguity in his characters, a peculiar depth of truth which set him apart as a unique, albeit comic, actor. And the reward for these roles was the love of the public.

His work will, without doubt, be loved by audiences of more than one generation. His films included: "Where's Ahmad?", "They stole the groom", "Romeo, my hero", "Fall of the Leaves in Summer Time", "Special Circumstances", "Dream", "Here you will not meet paradise", his plays "Hicran", "Ah, Paris, Paris!", "Daughter of the King", "My Favourite Madman", "Rich Woman", and others.

In 1974 Seyavus Aslan was awarded the title Merited Artiste of the Azerbaijani Republic, and in 1982 he received the title People's Artiste. On 25 June, two days before he died, Seyavus Aslan was awarded the "Saraf" Order.