Jack Studio Theatre – 23 February 2019
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
3***
Italo Svevo’s brief period of fame as a writer came in his sixties, when Mussolini and his Blackshirts violently suppressed criticism and dissent. Howard Colyer’s monologue imagines Svevo waiting for the critics’ and the authorities’ reactions to his new play, As a Man Grows Younger, a thinly veiled parody of the fascists’ mission to rejuvenate Italy. Will the reviews denounce his work as anti-fascist or will the Blackshirts storm in and carry him to his death?
The play begins with a torpedo attack in the harbour of Trieste which cements Svevo’s pacifist views and signals the upcoming political complications of statehood after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, especially for a Jewish family with Italian, German and Hungarian roots.
As Svevo awaits his fate his emotions rattle back and forth between terror and anger, despair to joyful remembrance as he tells of his family and career. We learn of his repeated resolution to quit smoking and his almost childish, gleeful pride in his reviews and the fact that HE is James Joyce’s Leopold Bloom.
This is an impressive play visually, with William Ingham’s evocative lighting of Karl Swinyard’s detailed set. Kate Bannister’s assured direction and David Bromley’s energetic and compelling performance ensure the audience do not tire of Svevo’s quirks. Bromley puts just the right amount of OTT characterisation into Svevo’s impressions of his wife, mother-in-law and Mussolini, and you wish there were more anecdotes about James Joyce as Bromley’s take on him is delightful
Hopping (literally) rapidly between different trains of thought effectively demonstrates the struggle and fear in Svevo’s mind as the consequences of speaking out are weighed against the moral price of keeping your head down and weathering the storm, but Colyer’s script does occasionally leap from moments of piercing insight to forgettable filler that wouldn’t be missed.
A thoughtful, heartfelt and moving tribute to Svevo that is well worth seeing.