Driving Miss Daisy

By Alfred Uhry

Directed by Monroe Dewberry
March 21, 22, 23, and 25, 1991
McComas Hall Theatre
Mississippi State University Campus

Featuring – Varrian Durrand Hall, Terry Reese McDowell, and Daniel Bates Sadler

The place is the Deep South, the time 1948, just prior to the civil rights movement. Having recently demolished another car, Daisy Wertham, a rich, sharp-tongued Jewish widow of 72, 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 black man, Hoke, whom Miss Daisy immediately regards with disdain and who, in turn, is not impressed with his employer's patronizing tone and, he believes, her blatent prejudice. But, in a series of absorbing scenes spanning 25 years, the two, despite their mutual differences, grow ever closer to, and more dependent on, each other, until, eventually, they become almost a couple. Slowly and steadily the dignified, good-natured Hoke breaks down the stern defenses of the ornery old lady, as she teaches him to read and write and, in a gesture of good will and shared concern, invites him to join her at a banquet in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.

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