19 AUG – 17 SEPT

By Alfred Uhry 

Alfred Uhry’s, Pulitzer Prize-winning, Driving Miss Daisy, is set in Atlanta just prior to the civil rights movement, and spans twenty-five years, from 1948 to 1973. 

Having recently demolished another car, Daisy Werthan, a Southern Jewish widow of seventy-two, is informed by her son, Boolie, that henceforth she must rely on the services of a chauffeur. 

The person he hires for the job is a thoughtful, unemployed African American, Hoke, whom Miss Daisy immediately regards with disdain and who, in turn, is not impressed with his employer’s patronising tone and, he believes, her latent prejudice. 

Gradually, however, Daisy’s prejudices are broken down and, despite their mutual differences, they grow ever closer to, and more dependent on, each other. Daisy teaches Hoke to read and write, while Hoke encourages Daisy to let go of her insecurities. until, eventually they form an inseparable friendship. 

The play is a precise fresco of the time and a magnificent eulogy to friendship. 

Uhry also won an Academy Award for his screenplay adaptation of Driving Miss Daisy, produced in 1989. The popular film version starred Jessica Tandy, for which she won an Oscar and Morgan Freeman.