Da

Autobiographical "memory plays" weren't all that common when Hugh Leonard wrote his about his father and their relationship. Neither was the device of a mature person interacting with a remembered younger self. Now, however, Da's use of these dramatic devices seems less fresh, more contrived. Not that V Craig Heidenreich lacks conviction as successful Irish playwright Charlie, back from his English home to his childhood one, where he's just buried his Da but can't shake his presence. Radiant with confidence in middle age, just as resolute when slowed down and finally touched with senility, David S. Howard's Da substantiates he's a man to be reckoned with. Winding up his "affairs" brings the son not only realization of how the past shaped his present but also of why both should be transformed in the future.

The strength of the two leads is, unfortunately, not bolstered by the stereotypical character of the long suffering Irish -- in this case, adoptive -- Mother. Nothing special as a role or what Sharon Spelman gives it. With heroic talk of having taken in an unwanted child, she does appear to impress Drumm, Charlie's straitlaced, righteous first employer, interpreted by John Arnold with steel spine and measured speech. People like these deserve mainly to be escaped from, as Charlie had to work hard and wait 13 years to do, all the while swallowing his pride. Richard Fromm's young Charlie is rightly full of frustration. That Fromm doesn't look in the least like Heidenreich confuses early on and annoys a bit later. Contrasting him by being a ladies man and a guy content with local ways and means of living, as Oliver, Bruce Roach seems born to brogue and workman's manner. One small incident in which Da vexed Charlie occurred when he came between him and Mary Tate, a blond (Krista Motley, good at being willing to be bad) known as The Yellow Peril.

How could Charlie take advantage of someone Da "humanized" with accounts of her and her family? Much more embarrassing: Da's sympathetic views of the WWII Germans and his allowing Mother to shame him. Most distressing: Da getting "diddled" by his employer of 54 years. Instead of indignation and wrath at being dismissed with a pittance and a silly souvenir, Da was flattered by praise. Pity more of it didn't flow between son and father during his lifetime. It seems to take a lot of time and sometimes a tad of strain in listening to the dialogue to come to a conclusion.