Alfred Uhry’s seminal piece, Driving Miss Daisy, is less of a play and more a series of short scenes and touching snapshots that combine to tell the story of the unlikeliest of friends growing old together.
When this stubborn, opinionated and seemingly polar opposite pair are played by legendary actors Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones, you know you are on to a winner. Their journey from bickering twosome to ever-so-slightly-more-affectionate bickering twosome is a feel-good joy to watch, packed to the brim with heart wrenching poignancy and subtle performances.
Set against the civil rights movement in the unforgiving Deep South, wealthy Jewish liberal Daisy Werthan finds herself forced to spend her days with an unwanted chauffeur, following an impressive accident that loses her any chance of driving herself to the Piggly Wiggly again.
Earl Jones, as the long-suffering driver Hoke Coleburn, is almost heartbreakingly loveable to watch. With his booming voice and awkward shuffle, Hoke’s gentle nature combined with a motor mouth that understands no social boundaries provides the perfect antidote to Daisy’s brittle exterior.
Redgrave as the title character is as amusingly uptight and arrogantly dogmatic as the role requires of her, but she adds a feisty twinkle in Daisy’s eye that never disappears, even in the final scenes when old age has taken away everything but her biting wit and bolshie attitude.
This is truly where the heart of the play lies, in the pair’s sometimes painful journey to old age. As the play spans its 25 years, Daisy and Hoke become more stooped and doddery as their glasses get thicker and their memories more faded. David Esbjornson’s direction is detailed to perfection; with Earl Jones leaning gradually further towards the windscreen to see the road ahead and Redgrave’s fuse wearing thinner and thinner as a heartbreaking confusion sets in.
At only 90 minutes, the journey has a lot to fit in to a small space of time, but John Lee Beatty’s cinematic design and Mark Bennett’s emotive music sets the pace, while Earl Jones and Redgrave’s onstage chemistry allows their physical pace to slow without ever losing that all important spark.
CM