Driving Miss Daisy
Eric Wood as Hoke
(Photo by Nancy Campbell)
By Alfried Uhry
Directed by Sally Childs
As the play opens in 1948, seventy-two-year-old Southern belle
Daisy Werthan, "the only woman in the history of driving to demolish
a three week old Packard, a two car garage and a free standing tool shed in
one fell swoop", has outlived her driving privileges. Her son Boolie,
concerned for her well-being and insurance premiums, has forbidden his mother
to drive. What’s more, Boolie has hired Hoke Colburn, a soft-spoken
sixty-year-old black man, to do the driving for her. "My mother is a
little high-strung," says Boolie to Hoke. "But the fact is, you’d
be working for me. She can say anything she likes, but she can't fire you.
"
"Don’t worry none about me," replies Hoke. "I hold on
no matter what way she run me."
Thus begins one of the most endearing and enduring friendships in the history
of drama. Although at first she resents Hoke and all that he represents, Daisy,
over the course of twenty-five years, gradually and grudgingly overcomes her
bitterness and underlying bigotry to accept him as a real and true friend.
To help ensure authenticity of manner and speech, director Childs has enlisted
the aid of Aletta Jervey, who appeared in the Hassler’s productions
of On Golden Pond and Simon’s Night. "I grew up very close to Atlanta,
where Daisy takes place", says Jervey. "Although I was only a teenager
in 1948, I remember the time very well, and I’ve lived through the same
things as the characters in the play."
Alfred Uhry’s play won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The film,
directed by Bruce Beresford and starring Jessica Tandy as Daisy, Morgan Freeman
as Hoke and Dan Ackroyd as Boolie, won four Academy Awards, including Best
Picture of 1989.
