Stage 3’s Driving Miss Daisy is a Vehicle of Success
The cast of “Driving Miss daisy” at Stage 3 Theatre Company. From left: John Bell, Hilah Elkins and Dennis Brown. Photo courtesy of Rich Miller.
By Wayne Kirkbride
Some of the World’s best-loved plays portray people and circumstances that audiences can identify with, that resonate common feelings and emotions. Written for the stage by Alfred Uhry, “Driving Miss Daisy” was adapted for the silver screen in 1989 and became the Academy Award’s best picture in that year.
This drama is ideally suited for Stage 3’s venue, which seeks out plays that are character driven and thought provoking. This production required only three actors, but the choice was critical to present the audience with authentic and empathetic characters that the audience would find believable. Stage 3 captured everything the author of the play intended and the movie version adapted.
Stage 3’s set design included the living room of Daisy Werthan’s Atlanta mansion with mauve painted walls with wainscoting upon which hung old family portraits. The furniture was in keeping with the era of the 1940s. Toward the other end of the stage were a desk and two chairs representing the office of Daisy’s son, Boolie, a successful businessman. The center was the play’s showpiece, an auto that consisted of two cushioned benches representing a front and rear seat and a steering wheel for the driver. Imaginary doors and trunk were opened by the characters as they entered and exited.
Set in the late 1940s and continuing into the early 1970s, the story captures the era of racial tension in the South and prejudice not only against Blacks, but also engulfing Jews, which Miss Daisy and her family are, but largely avoid in part due to their wealth and social status.
In the play, Miss Daisy, a widowed woman of 72 is forced to give up her independence of going where she wishes when an auto accident indicates to her son, Boolie she needs a driver. Fiercely proud, Daisy indignantly refuses to accept the newly hired colored driver, Hoke who is forced to spend six days sitting at the kitchen table waiting for her to relent. When Daisy finally agrees to be chauffeured, Hoke mutters, “Only took six days – same as it did the Lord.” So begins a journey between strangers, one a well-to-do Jewish woman who is proud of her humble upbringing, and her black driver, a grandfather in need of this job.
Their journey over the years, mirrors the changes both in their characters evolving understanding and bond of friendship, and the attitudes and prejudices present in the world of the South in that era. Daisy’s journey of self discovery uncovers the suppressed prejudice she had grown up with, and her own experiences with racial hatred when being driven to the synagogue and she found it had been fire bombed, prompting Hoke to tell her a tale of witnessing the lynching of a black man. The connection is made that ignorance, fear, and hatred can extend beyond black people, encompassing her ordered world as well.
The end of the play finds Miss Daisy now in an assisted living facility now in her late 90s and Hoke, 85, himself no longer able to drive, infrequently visiting his old friend. Getting a lift from Boolie to the facility, a frail Daisy greets Hoke who seeing her struggling with a piece of pie, says, “let me help you with this”, as he gently and lovingly feeds it to her as the scene ends with this symbol of their bond of affection for one another developed over the years.
This play would not have succeeded as well as it did without top-notch actors convincingly and flawlessly portraying their characters. Hilah Elkins played Miss Daisy with the wit, sarcasm, and spunk of this Atlanta matron, a Jewish woman who retired as a schoolteacher, proud of her family’s rise from humble beginnings to one of social prominence. Her opinionated spirit is exemplified when during a phone call from her son, she tells her son to give her love to her daughter-in-law, hangs up and says to herself, “that’s probably the only lie I’ll tell today”. Elkins mannerisms, southern accent, and demeanor perfectly captured the spirit of the woman she portrayed as the character evolved over the years and time took its physical and mental toll on her body.
Daisy (Hilah Elkins) gets help carrying her groceries from her driver (Dennis Brown). Photo courtesy of Rich Miller.
Dennis Brown, who plays Hoke, has a varied career in stage and musical productions and is the Director of Music and Liturgy at the St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Sonora. Brown’s character required he become a Negro of the Deep South, with the idiomatic characterizations of that race at that time and place. Brown without doubt has absorbed the character and made him his own. With humor, Brown shows Hoke’s likeable side, time after time. In the serious and emotional moments of the dialogue, Brown conveys the pain Hoke has felt and still feels as a black man living in the segregated South.
John Bell plays Daisy’s son, Boolie. For those who saw Stage 3’s production of “Inherit the Wind”, he was the memorable and jaded reporter in that production. Bell’s character is one of a son, devoted to caring for his mother, recognizing her independence and desire to live on her own on her own terms, and trying to provide the freedom she needs by hiring Hoke as her driver. He demonstrates what many of us experience with aging parents as he shows his exasperation and frustration with his mother’s demands and stubbornness. His character warmly portrays a man who recognizes the growing bond of friendship between his mother and driver as well as his own affection for Hoke. Long after Hoke can no longer drive, Boolie still keeps him on the payroll. In a supporting role, Bell competently adds his talent to the story being portrayed between the two principals.
The production used lighting to change the scenes from time and place. The theatre’s stage lights turned off, leaving the audience in the dark for a few moments as the scenes changed, giving the cast time to move from set to set or to have an attire change and makeup applied appropriately to show the characters aging over the years. It was effective as was the sound affects at times that evoked a darkening night, driving an unfamiliar road, with the sound of crickets in the background. The conclusion, with the emotionally powerful interaction between Hoke and Miss Daisy in the rest home, played out with the strains of “After the Ball is Over”, playing in the background.
Stage 3 just keeps getting better and better with the picks of plays they have chosen. The talent that they have recruited continues to impress the audiences that are growing in number. On this opening night, people had to be turned away from a sold out house. The audience by their laughter and applause were totally enthralled with the production. The play’s ending probably had many tearing up with a lump in their throat. My advice to those who wish to see an entertaining and moving play – get your tickets early. Once the word is out, you may not find any available and it would be a shame to have missed out.
Driving Miss Daisy is at Stage 3 from September 12 through October 19.
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
