TEHRAN – “Sheppey”, William Somerset Maugham’s last play, has been published in Persian by Qatreh in Tehran.

Reza Shirmarz is the translator of the book first published in 1933.

Maugham wrote the play at the age of 59 and after he had reached distinction as a novelist and playwright.

It is the story of the change of fortune of hairdresser Joseph Miller who was born on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent and nicknamed Sheppey. 

The play is set in the 1930s. Sheppey, a hard worker at the same establishment for 15 years, wins a subsidiary prize in the Irish Lottery of £8,500 but does not take to his win with the same style that most others would – and to which most, including his boss, his wife or his daughter and her fiancé – expect him to.

The play was written in 1932 and first produced at the Wyndham’s Theatre London on September 14, 1933 with a cast that included Ralph Richardson, then aged 31, and Laura Cowie who had been a star of the silent movies.

After the production of “Sheppey”, Maugham announced publicly that he would write no more plays and kept to his word until his death in 1965.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian edition of William Somerset Maugham’s play “Sheppey”.

MMS/YAW