Memoirs Wrapped in Love & Forgiveness

Written by Lauren Yarger
Tuesday, 08 September 2009


Tassels Awarded: 4.5 of 5


A sweet, sad and inspiring memoir of growing up in Ireland. Owen Dara uses humor, song and love to paint a picture of his boyhood in Cork, Ireland with a devout Catholic mother and a father who battles depression.

Dara is a wonderful storyteller, playing the various roles of his parents, a school mate, the priest and himself. He draws the audience in and touches them deeply with the tales. It's very encouraging to see an author's view of family dysfunction filtered by love, rather than by the anger and pain it causes. The show is derived from Dara's book of memoires "White Horses: An Irish Childhood." The white horses refer to a story his father told him about herds of white horses forming the white caps on ocean waves.

Highlights:

* Just the right blend of humor to balance the sadder parts
* The song he writes for his dad


Lowlights:

* None

White Horses: An Irish Childhood

Reviewed by Sarah Congress

Aug 18, 2009

White Horses: An Irish Childhood tells the autobiographical coming-of-age story of writer/performer Owen Dara. Dara's childhood in Ireland did not involve famine, alcoholism, or even terrible poverty. Instead of death he battles his father's depression; in place of typhoid and tuberculosis, he conquers his soul's search for religion. Dara himself points out in the first few moments that if his story were that of a miserable and muddy Irish childhood, he would have titled it "Owen's Ashes."

With charisma and humor, Dara captivates the audience as he reenacts significant events from age five to adulthood. The audience watches Dara's raw yet often hilarious journey with school, girls, the controlling Catholic church, and a controlling Catholic mother. He successfully plays several different characters, making each one distinct using his physicality and vocal variety. His energy and good-nature flooded the theatre during his tales so much so that a few audience members actually began talking to him during the performance.

White Horses: An Irish Childhood is a moving and sincere play about a boy trying to understand his father's depression, his religion, and himself. Dara's magnetic energy and comedic timing help make his rather sad childhood into a funny, yet universal story about self realization.

Producer: Breaking Tide
Author: Owen Dara
Director: Dan Toscano & Elizabeth Duck

September 2009 : BOOKS
A Moving Memoir of Growing Up in Working Class Ireland
WHITE HORSES: An Irish Childhood
By Owen Dara
Breaking Tide
ISBN: 1-4243-1403-8

Reviewed by Linda McKale
With his use of inventive language and dialogue, Owen Dara has pieced together a moving memoir of his childhood growing up in a working class Irish household.

The book offers insight into how the various personalities coped with the challenges of illness, economic uncertainty, and discord. No writing about an Irish childhood would be complete without including the presence of the Catholic Church and its influence on the family.

Despite the hardships, Dara's narrative is filled with humour and an underlying sense of love and devotion within the family, especially in relation to the closeness between the author and his older brother.

The title of this book White Horses is taken from one of Dara's favourite childhood memory of his father and growing up by the ocean. It is interesting how he refers to the condition of his father's pottery wheel throughout the book and how this comes to symbolize what is happening within the family circle.

Having chosen to respect the privacy of his mother and siblings, this book is not available in Ireland. His mother voiced the opinion that she had no objection to the book's publication in Ireland, as long as she was either dead or in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's.

The author chose not to use his family name but opted for a fictitious one. Dara is a Gaelic word meaning second, which is his positioning in this family of five siblings. "Family comes first," says Dara.

Owen Dara is a man of many talents: accomplished singer, musician and song writer. He is a graduate of the University of Melbourne, Australia, majoring in drama. As an actor of stage and screen, he has had many radio and television appearances and has also entertained on the international comedy circuit. He is currently residing in California.

A layered and deeply moving evocation of childhood that bristles with inventive language and dialogue. Dara recounts the travails of growing up in a working class Irish Catholic household with tenderness and a keenly observed sense of humor that linger long in the mind.
Jeremy Kay, Freelance Arts reviewer for The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph