[Da] is a memory play, honourably in the tradition of Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, but more closely bound to the nostalgia of Peter Nichols's Forget-me-nol Lane. The achievement, however, is individual. The form, while not new, encompasses exactly the demands of Mr Leonard's story. Because Charlie's memories of his father, his Da, become concrete when he returns to Dublin for his funeral, it seems only right that the material figure of his father should dominate most of the performance….

What is remembered is naturally what moves the play along, but how it is remembered is what gives the play its warmth and its charm. (p. 35)