Aubrey holds a Ph.D. in English and has published many articles about twentieth-century literature. In this essay, he describes the conflict between father and son in Leonard's play in terms of a three-part structure of adulation, estrangement, and either partial reconciliation or continued distance.

Conflict between father and son is one of storytelling's oldest themes, from Sophocles' Oedipus Rex to the battle between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in the Star Wars trilogy Leonard's memory play Da exploits this familiar theme in an original, often touching, but ultimately extremely sad manner.

There are of course as many types of father-son relationships as there are fathers and sons, but a familiar pattern possesses a three-part structure. As a child, the son regards his father as a hero, the lord of his world, the model he seeks to emulate. But during adolescence, as the boy begins to seek...