Hugh Leonard is one of the most celebrated Irish playwrights in the second half of the twentieth century and a prominent dramatist on the international scene. Da was first performed at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, for the Dublin Theatre Festival, in 1973, and was soon met with both Critical acclaim and popular success. In 1978, Leonard received several awards for Da, including the Antoinette Perry ("Tony") Award for best play, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best play, the Drama Desk Award for outstanding new play, and the Outer Critics Circle Award for outstanding play. Nearly thirty years after its initial production, Da is still considered to be Leonard's masterpiece.

S. F. Gallagher, in an introduction to Selected Plays of Hugh Leonard, observes that Da is "a cornucopia of comedy," winch, with "the controlled pathos of several scenes," is "exquisitely moving but. . . never mawkish." Da...