Drama Circle Presents Hugh Leonard Play

Synge’s Christy Mahon gets rid of his Da by hitting him with a loy. At least that’s what he thinks until the old man turns up again to plague him. Similarly Hugh Leonard’s Charlie Tynan thinks he is rid of his Da when he has buried him. But it’ snot as simple as that.! The old man lives on in his memory – ignorant and generous, obsequious and self-assertive, vulnerable and indestructible.

Charlie tries to exorcise his memory by destroying the few pathetic mementoes of an insignificant life but as he turns the key in the door for the last time and prepares to return to his successful literary career in London, he realises that the old man will be with him as long as he lives. For better or for worse, Da is a part of him. “Da” was the outstanding success of the 1973 Dublin Theatre Festival. The action of the play takes place during a couple of hours of the afternoon of Da’s funeral, but through the skilful use of flashbacks, Hugh Leonard re-creates a whole lifetime.

The play can be enjoyed on many levels. It is richly comic in dialogue and situation. As an essay on nostalgia it brings us back to the war years – the half ounce of tea and the Liverpool boat. But it is primarily a study of Charlie’s love-hate relationship with his foster-father. In the end we are left wondering whether the sophisticated middle-aged son will at last come to terms with his past or whether he will spend the rest of his life trying to get rid of Da. Sligo Drama Circle’s production of “Da” will open in the Town Hall on Tuesday night next, 22nd June. “Don’t Utter a Note” finishes its three-week run tonight, Thursday, making way for “Da” which will be presented on each Tuesday and Thursday night for the next four weeks.

from The Sligo Champion, June 18th, 1976