The Accountant

I first met him during the public performances of Exit Theatre Group in Tehran. Since I always keep an eye on the audience, I quickly noticed that this young man kept coming back, watching our plays night after night.One day, between two performances, I approached him and, without any introduction, said: "Look, I know I’m no artistic genius worthy of all the time and money you’re spending here. But this is my profession. What about you? Don’t you have anything better to do in this city? What is it about this damn play that makes you watch it ten times?"
He was caught off guard—and then burst into laughter.
That’s how our friendship began.
A few days later, after one of the shows, he came up to me and said, "If there's anything I can do to help, just let me know."
Not missing a beat, I said, "I was just about to mop the stage floor. If you want, go ahead and do it."
I wanted to see if he was genuinely interested or just looking for a way to hang around. Without hesitation, he asked where the mop was and got to work. I busied myself with other tasks. When he finished, he turned to me and asked, "Anything else?"
I told him, "If you're serious, come back tomorrow before the show at 5 PM. I'll introduce you to the team, and you can talk to Shirin (our assistant director) about how you can help."
The next day, when we arrived at 4:30 PM, he was already standing at the entrance, waiting. I went to soak the mop, but he jumped ahead of me. I said, "Nope, today it’s my turn. You can mop at night."
And just like that, he became part of Exit Theatre Group.

By profession, he’s an accountant and a full-time employee. 
Slowly, he took over all the financial matters of the group. His precision is remarkable, his sense of responsibility unmatched. He became both our stage manager and accountant. Soon, he was also in charge of Exit Conversations—planning our discussion series a full year in advance, with a new event every two weeks. A true mastermind.

Then came the day when one of our members was arrested on May Day. Since he was the only full-time employee in the group, he used his official payslip to post bail and got our comrade out.

In all these years of working together, we’ve never once discussed politics—yet we both know exactly where we stand.