Synopses & Reviews
Dublin, the 1960s. After Da's funeral, Charlie returns to his childhood home only to find his father's ghost stubbornly unwilling to leave the house. As the events of Charlie's youth and Da's troubled relationship with Mother are replayed, we discover the darkly comic, bittersweet relationship that existed between father and son.
"A beguiling play about a son's need to come to terms with his father and himself ... in a class with the best of Sean O'Casey."—New York Times
Hugh Leonard is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and novelist. His plays include the Tony Award-winning Da (1973) and Tony-nominated A Life (1979). Other plays include A Leap in the Dark (1957), A Walk on the Water (1960), The Saints Go Cycling In (1965), The Au Pair Man (1968), The Patrick Pearse Motel (1971) and Time Was (1976). Other works include the screenplays for TV adaptations of Great Expectations, Nicholas Nickleby, The Moonstone, Wuthering Heights and Good Behaviour. His novelisation of his 4-part drama Parnell and the Englishwoman (BBC) won the 1992 Sagittarius Award. He has published two volumes of autobiography, Home Before Night and Out After Dark as well as his novel A Wild People.
Since its formation as the National Theatre of Ireland by W.B. Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory in 1904, the Abbey Theatre has been the cradle of new drama in Ireland for successive generations of Irish playwrights. From the early works of Synge and O'Casey to those by writers at the cutting edge of Irish theatre today, new plays have remained at the very core of the National Theatre's artistic policy and have helped to establish and maintain its reputation as Ireland's foremost cultural institution.
Review
"A beguiling play about a son's need to come to terms with his father and himself. In a class with the best of Sean O'Casey."—
The New York Times
Synopsis
Hugh Leonard's classic play, reissued for a new season at Dublin's Abbey Theatre
Dublin, the 1960s. After Da's funeral, Charlie returns to his childhood home only to find his father's ghost stubbornly unwilling to leave the house or his son's mind. As the events of Charlie's youth and Da's troubled relationship with Mother are replayed, we discover the darkly comic, bittersweet relationship that existed between father and son.
Da won the Tony award for Best Play in 1978
Published to tie in with the revival of the play at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin in July 2002
Synopsis
Dublin, the 1960s. After Da's funeral, Charlie returns to his childhood home only to find his father's ghost stubbornly unwilling to leave the house. As the events of Charlie's youth and Da's troubled relationship with Mother are replayed, we discover the darkly comic, bittersweet relationship that existed between father and son.
"A beguiling play about a son's need to come to terms with his father and himself ... in a class with the best of Sean O'Casey."—New York Times
Hugh Leonard is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and novelist. His plays include the Tony Award-winning Da (1973) and Tony-nominated A Life (1979). Other plays include A Leap in the Dark (1957), A Walk on the Water (1960), The Saints Go Cycling In (1965), The Au Pair Man (1968), The Patrick Pearse Motel (1971) and Time Was (1976). Other works include the screenplays for TV adaptations of Great Expectations, Nicholas Nickleby, The Moonstone, Wuthering Heights and Good Behaviour. His novelisation of his 4-part drama Parnell and the Englishwoman (BBC) won the 1992 Sagittarius Award. He has published two volumes of autobiography, Home Before Night and Out After Dark as well as his novel A Wild People.
Since its formation as the National Theatre of Ireland by W.B. Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory in 1904, the Abbey Theatre has been the cradle of new drama in Ireland for successive generations of Irish playwrights. From the early works of Synge and O'Casey to those by writers at the cutting edge of Irish theatre today, new plays have remained at the very core of the National Theatre's artistic policy and have helped to establish and maintain its reputation as Ireland's foremost cultural institution.