Play Review: Driving Miss Daisy

Sian Phillips and Derek Griffiths

Driving Miss Daisy, a comedy drama by Alfred Uhry opened at the Richmond Theatre with Sian Phillips as Miss Daisy, Derek Griffiths as Hoke, her chauffeur, and Teddy Kempner as her son Boolie.

The play is set in Atlanta, Georgia in 1948 and explores the twenty five year long relationship between an ageing, Southern Jewish widow and her African American driver.

Despite her indignant reluctance to accept her son's appointment of Hoke, the two gradually become loyal friends while reflecting the social unrest of the civil rights period.

It strikes a contemporaneous chord with racism and antisemitism still at work today. The play exposes long-held prejudices which are eroded over time by mutual respect and ultimately affection.

Sian Phillips is feisty and independent with the 1950's mantra of minding what her liberal Temple neighbours think of her, conspicuous consumption of engaging a chauffeur not being permissible in her social class.

By the 1960s the two are on road trip with Miss Daisy funnelling Hoke a picnic as he drives along in a scene of exquisitely comic timing.

At the start of the 1970s the duo, embracing the physical process of ageing to perfection, play out their mutually reversed dependence with aching simplicity which is extraordinary as it is moving.

Driving Miss Daisy is at Richmond Theatre until Saturday. From there the play is being taken to Brighton.

For more information and tickets, see: www.atgtickets.com/shows/driving-miss-daisy-2/richmond-theatre/#performance_tabs=tab_tour