Daisy Drives it Home

620 words By ROSINE REYNOLDS

Director’s Notes in the program for Driving Miss Daisy, Ross Valley Players’ final play of the season, say that there really was a Miss Daisy. Playwright Alfred Uhry modeled her composite on his grandmother’s friend and on impressions from his mother and her sisters. There was also a Hoke, really a chauffeur, and an original Boolie, a friend of his aunt’s. Twenty-one years after the play’s premiere at a small theatre in New York, these characters and their humanity still resonate.

Many have seen the 1990 film, also scripted by Uhry. His stage play is both the same and different from the film. This time, there are only three characters -- no Idella, no Florine (though we get to know her offstage,) -- no policemen. But the conflicts and the closeness remain. Driving Miss Daisy is a story about what endures.

The play opens with the sound of an auto crash, closely followed by Boolie’s edict to his mother that she’s not to drive anymore. She counters that it was the car’s fault, but he’s resolved. Mama is seventy-two years old, she’s just demolished a new Packard and a tool shed in one swoop, and the insurance company won’t cover her anymore. Boolie will find “a colored man” to drive her. More arguments from his mother about depending on hired help. “It’s best to do for yourself.”

But Boolie prevails and hires Hoke, an experienced driver who needs the job and would prefer to work for Jewish people. Daisy can’t fire him, but for six days she sulks about being chauffeured, finally agreeing only because they need some items from the Piggly Wiggly market. Hoke reminds Boolie that six days is the same time “the Lord took to make the world.” In the following short scenes interspersed with music of the period, Hoke and Miss Daisy learn each other’s ways and form a bond that lasts into their mutual old age.

In the second act, both rider and driver are drawn into the civil chaos of the ‘sixties. Miss Daisy’s temple is bombed. “It must be a mistake” she insists, while Hoke remembers the lynching of his friend’s daddy. Boolie gets invited to a dinner honoring Martin Luther King and hesitates to attend because “it might be bad for business.” (Boolie’s just been named “Man of the Year” by the Atlanta Business Council.) He gives his mother the tickets, suggesting she should invite Hoke. Should she? Would he come?

A few years more, and Hoke’s vision has made him give up driving; Miss Daisy’s health has made her give up her home. What these two have left is kindness and mutual nourishment.

For this final play of the season, Director Chris Cassell has found three excellent players. Anne Ripley, in the title role, gives a seamless portrayal of an embattled, but intractable Southern woman. Bertron Bruno’s Hoke captures the nuances of his character’s speech, right down to the mournful, “Uh – huh.” Alex Shafer shows Boolie’s gradual stiffening under the compromises of his mother’s needs and the times he lives in. Michael Berg has designed costumes that age with the characters and can be changed in the space of a quick blackout, while Billie Cox, in the same space, dresses the dark stage with music. The result is a fine, professional finish to RVP’s ‘07 – ‘08 season.

Driving Miss Daisy will play at The Barn Theatre in the Marin Art & Garden Center in Ross through August 17. Performances are at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays, and 2 p.m.. Sundays. Ticket prices range from $16 to $20. For more information, call 456-9555 or see the website, www.rossvalleyplayers.com .