 |
| Cordially
yours: Markle and Marshall in Driving Miss Daisy. |
Right
of Way
By James Yeara
Driving
Miss Daisy
By
Alfred Uhry, directed by Regge Life
Capital
Repertory Theatre, through April 19
The last image of Capital Repertory’s current production of
Driving Miss Daisy says it all without words: The aged
African-American chauffeur, Hoke, feeds the even-more-aged
Jewish woman, Miss Daisy, pumpkin pie at a Thanksgiving dinner
in the nursing home in which Daisy is spending her final days.
A moment before, she had reached for the fork with shaking,
frail hands. Now accepting Hoke’s help, Daisy opens her mouth,
receives the forkful of pie, then smiles, looking up at him
from her chair. She beams. Hoke looks down on her. The lights
flare for a beat, and then there is darkness—and the audience
explodes in applause.
This 1988 Pulitzer Prize-winning play (the film version of
which garnered a 1989 Academy Award for Best Picture) earns
the applause with a production as tasty as fresh-from-the-oven
pumpkin pie; there’s an honesty and a simplicity at work here
that achieves that earthy sweetness. It isn’t flash. It isn’t
sophisticated. It isn’t more than the sum of its ingredients,
but it is good and wholesome and tops off an evening well.
Capital Rep’s fast-paced production (84 minutes with no intermission)
finds the surprising humor in the three characters as Driving
Miss Daisy depicts the 25-year relationship between 72-year-old
Daisy Wertan (Lois Markle), her son Boolie (Jay Edwards),
and the chauffeur he hires, 60-year-old Hoke Coleburn (Larry
Marshall). Tracing the key moments in simple but clearly delineated
images, director Regge Life keeps the focus on the characters
and not on stagecraft. Driving Miss Daisy blossoms:
You watch the play’s 24 scenes bloom, season to season, from
1948 to 1973, accompanied by floral images glowing from the
windows of the French doors upstage center.
The play’s sounds and words also engage: From the opening
sounds of Miss Daisy’s car grinding into the garage, through
Boolie’s interview of Hoke and Hoke’s crafty, sly responses
(“They say they [Jews] are stingy and they cheap, but they
don’t say that around me”) to Hoke’s key question, “How you
know how I see unless you look out through my eyes?,” Driving
Miss Daisy has a sure ear for the rhythms of ordinary
life and the humor that springs unbidden from it. There are
no flashes of poetry, and few contrived situations that wring
laughs. Rather, Driving Miss Daisy earns what it gets.
In the scene during which Hoke lets it be known that he has
bought the car he’s driven for eight years from the used-car
dealer Boolie sold it to, the chauffeur declares, “And keep
your ashes off my upholstery.” The laughter sneaks out, but
the scene also conveys Hoke’s strength.
In this production, there are neither punch lines every 90
seconds nor impassioned speeches. The soapboxes are not brought
out; simple declarations speak louder. Hoke explodes when
Miss Daisy refuses to let him stop the car to urinate, and
there’s a shift in Miss Daisy’s understanding. Her arrogance
and latent racism again and again are chipped away. A former
teacher, Miss Daisy learns as much as—if not more than—she
teaches, a sure sign of a great teacher. Driving Miss Daisy
is full of warm sentiments, sure lessons and organic humor
that, like good pumpkin pie, never stuff an audience.
The three actors trust the material, and their acting is as
honest and sure as the play. Such simple fare needs actors
long on honesty and short on “lying with enthusiasm.” Marshall,
Edwards, and Markle have such honesty. There’s no straining
for a moment, no contrived nattering muggery, no eyebrow acting,
no forced quavering vocal tremor to announce in boldface that
“this is an emotional moment.” Like the last image, the three
feed the audience with a caring grace that leads an audience
rightfully to its feet to say thank you. Capital Rep’s Driving
Miss Daisy celebrates the simple pleasures of lives worth
living.
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