This month, at the Brockley Jack Studio Theatre in London, in-words will present As a Man Grows Younger; a production inspired by the friendship of two writers.
A man is looking out to sea, and waiting for a knock on his door. He fears he will be taken on a boat ride by the not-so-secret police, and that he’ll be diving deep.
A writer tries to remain true to himself under Fascism. As a Man Grows Younger is a dramatic monologue set in Italy in the 1920s; inspired by the friendship of two writers, Svevo and Joyce, and their roads from obscurity to fame.
My parents gave me the name Ettore Schmitz.
I gave myself the name Italo Svevo.
James Joyce named me Leopold Bloom.
I’m his Ulysses, people are reading about me far and wide,
only they don’t know it’s me when they read his novel.
Italo Svevo (1861-1928) was the pen-name of Ettore Schmitz of Trieste, who was a businessman, a student and friend of James Joyce; and ultimately one of Italy’s most famous twentieth century authors. He was an Austrian-Italian, Catholic-Jew, socialist-capitalist, and a liberal who endured the Fascism of Mussolini, and like many others wondered as to his own security under the rule of the Blackshirts. Through writing, he did what he could to reconcile the contradictions of his character and circumstances.
When: 19th – 23rd February 2019
Where: Brockley Jack Studio Theatre, 410 Brockley Road, London SE4 2DH
£: Tickets cost £16 or £13 for concessions
More info: brockleyjack.co.uk
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