The new play “As a Man Grows Younger” written by Howard Colyer is a one-man show of 70 minutes which introduces us to Italo Svevo (1861-1928), one of Italy’s most famous twentieth century authors and also a friend of James Joyce, who he met many times and thanks to whom he learned English. The monologue is set in Italy in the 1920s, a time when Mussolini’s fascist party was rising without being taken too seriously yet, and Svevo (played by David Bromley) struggled to write his next piece for fear of being prosecuted.
Fear is the operable word here. It is omnipresent in this play. There is a fear of going to prison, of where the country is going, of anyone related to the government. Whenever Svevo feels afraid, frog croaks sound through his head, and even come out of his mouth. They announce danger, and keep him on his toes, but also make him wonder what it would be like to ignore them. He’s just written a new book about a man who doesn’t age, referring to Mussolini’s hope for a young Italy. He doesn’t know whether the next vehicle riding by will be the paperboy with a new review, or the police. Svevo also smokes a lot, calling each cigarette his “last one”. I took this as representing a fear of letting go of the past too. His brother, whom he lost in his twenties, tried to get him to stop smoking. There is also a fear that tomorrow he’ll be dead and that it will indeed be his last, a never-ending circle.
