By Geoff Rose
On one of his many visits to Kilkenny to see productions of his plays, Jack Keyes Byrne (aka Hugh Leonard,) remarked that he felt like an imposter, when it came to the Theatre.
This from a playwright and author who had successfully won 4 prestigious ‘Tony’ awards on Broadway for his play Da in 1978.
Previously, he had the play rejected by the West End in London as being ‘too Irish’.
The play, a classic memory play, tells the semi-autobiographical story of a son haunted by his Irish father, who has just died. It is set in Dalkey in 1968, and times and places remembered, and its main character, an expatriate writer named Charlie Tynan, represents Hugh Leonard, who, like the character was adopted.
The play deals with warmth and humour with Charlie’s relationships with the two father figures in his life. “Da”- his adoptive father, and Mr Drumm, a cynical civil servant who becomes his mentor.
The play went on to win Best Play, Best Actor, Best Direction, and Best Supporting Actor, leading Leonard to observe “Da, of course, is my favourite play”.
The play broke all box office records during its run on Broadway and elsewhere, and it continues to this day to be an exceedingly popular choice with audiences both here in Ireland and abroad.
A reserved and somewhat shy man, he nevertheless was very convivial company, and while in Kilkenny he answered the many questions asked of him, by the casts of the many productions staged here in the 1970s and 80s.
The history of Da, is one of many successes, and it has come to be Hugh Leonards best known play, it was made into a film with Martin Sheen, and Barnard Hughes in the title roles, with the Author himself playing a pall-bearer in a funeral scene.
In a writing life that spanned 50 years, Hugh Leonard wrote 30 full length plays, 10 one-act plays, 3 volumes of essays, and 3 full length novels, as well as contributing a weekly column to the Sunday Independent, that were subsequently published in book form and became best sellers.
His memoir Home Before Night was followed by Out After Dark, and among his many successful Television adaptations was James Plunkett’s, Strumpet City.
His film script for Widows Peak was filmed in Inistioge, Co Kilkenny, starring Mia Farrow, and Joan Plowright.
Hugh Leonard has left a lasting theatrical legacy that grows with each passing decade.
He passed away, peacefully in the Blackrock Clinic on February 12th 2009, aged 83. He is survived by his daughter Danielle.
Lake Productions Kilkenny will present Da by Hugh Leonard at Thomastown Community Hall in March. Cast includes: Joe Murray, Michael Hayes, Declan Taylor, Claire Henriques, Sean Hackett, Derek Dooley, Anne Murray, and Clare Gibbs. Ger Cody directs.
