A Prayer for My Daughter (play)

Thomas Babe's writing deals with the traditional notion of a hero. Throughout A Prayer for My Daughter, the two 'heroes,' the police officers, increasingly blur the lines between right and wrong.

Its 2008 revival was described by critic Karen Fricker as a "poetic meditation on the lack of clear boundaries between masculine and feminine, and good and evil."^[2] It combines a threat of violence and homoeroticism.^[2] This was written a few years after the end of the Vietnam War, and Babe created one officer as a Vietnam veteran, coping with losing the war and being rejected by his countrymen in the anti-war protests and activism.

The play is named for William B. Yeats' poem for his newly born daughter. Each of the characters, in one way or another, has a daughter; and a variety of father/daughter relationships are explored. This is in contrast to the majority of family dramas related to parent/child relationships, which more often explore the father/son dynamic.

It was first produced in 1978 in the United States at The Public Theater in New York City, directed by Joseph Papp.^[3]

The first UK production was at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 1978 starring Antony Sher and Donal McCann. The play was first revived in 2008 by the Young Vic, directed by Dominic Hill and starring Colin Morgan, Matthew Marsh, Corey Johnson, and Sean Chapman.^[4][5]