'Driving Miss Daisy' gets a tuneup at First Folio
Major events may throw people together, but minor moments build relationships.
A kind word, a small but thoughtful gesture, the seemingly inconsequential niceties repeated over time are the stuff of which lasting friendships are built. Such are the moments playwright Alfred Uhry depicts in his sweet, but not saccharine "Driving Miss Daisy," the Pulitzer Prize-winning play in a disarming revival at Oak Brook's First Folio Shakespeare Festival.
Uhry received a 1990 Academy Award for adapted screenplay for his homespun tale about overcoming racial prejudice and coping with aging set against the evolving relationship between a pair of outsiders. As much a character study as anything else, "Driving Miss Daisy" unfolds as a series of scenes between a persnickety Jewish widow and her black driver over the course of 25 years, during which they evolve from wary strangers to abiding friends.
More Coverage Video 'Driving Miss Daisy'
Daisy Werthan (Jill Shellabarger) is a wealthy Atlanta matron who's still sharp at 72. But after a series of accidents, the latest involving her crashing her three-week- old Packard into a two-car garage and a free-standing tool shed, her son Boolie (David Rice) insists upon hiring a chauffeur, a 60-year-old black widower named Hoke Coleburn (D.J. Howard). Resentful of the loss of independence Hoke's presence represents and still harboring racist attitudes (she insists black people "are like little children in the house #8230; they see something and take it"), Daisy treats the accommodating Hoke with disdain. For the sake of the job, he endures her bossiness, subtly countering her power plays with his own.
The partnership Boolie forces on them eventually evolves into friendship as the pair -- both deeply affected by discrimination -- find in each other solace in their golden years.
Frankly, aside from the change of heart these characters experience, not much happens in "Driving Miss Daisy." Alison C. Vesely's low-key direction suits Uhry's understated drama where mundane gestures like the return of a can of salmon and the offer of a cup of quickie-mart coffee help chip away at long-held prejudices (while solidifying an unlikely friendship) in a way civil rights marches and speeches never could.
Vesely and her commendable trio ensure the play doesn't become mawkish by not over-sentimentalizing the play and its characters.
While a bit young for the role, Shellabarger makes a perfectly imperious Daisy. Like set designer Angela Miller who suggests with only a few props (deftly positioned by a hard-working stage crew) a southern home and a mid century sedan, Shellabarger implies a great deal by doing very little. The terrific Howard brings a quiet dignity to the affable Hoke, who in his way is as proud as Daisy, and just as intractable.
This marks the second time Rice has played Boolie, the loving son whose good-natured wisecracks reveal his affection for his mother. And his command of the role -- astutely played with equal parts exasperation and indulgence -- is obvious.
"Driving Miss Daisy
3 stars out of four
Location: Mayslake Peabody Estate, 1717 W. 31st St., Oak Brook
Times: 8 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturday; 3 p.m. Sundays through May 4
Running Time: About 90 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $26, $21
Parking: Free lot adjacent to theater
Box office: (630) 986-8067 or firstfolio.org
Rating: For most audiences