DRIVING MISS DAISY REVIEWED
DRIVING MISS DAISY
Reviewed by Jeffrey R Smith of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle
What is it about the name Daisy?
Why is Daisy associated with poor driving?
Are actuarialists aware of the correlation that exists between vehicular destruction, motorized mayhem, carnage and drivers named Daisy?
Should Daisys be made to pay more for collision and liability insurance?
Would you loan your fully customized, candy-apple finished, chopped-n-channeled, Pinto GT Turbo to a woman named Daisy?
We think not.
The first Daisy of Demolition Derby fame to incompetantly grip a steering wheel did so in 1924.
The cars in those days had barely enough power to be lethal weapons—road kill of anything bigger than a possum or a marmot was a luxury few people could afford, nearly impossible—but that would not stop the airheaded yet determined Daisy Buchanan.
Following a poorly conceived social mixer, Daisy was driving back to West Egg, Long Island, when Myrtle Wilson mistakenly tried to mistakenly flag her down.
Whether is was her lacrimous eyes, a bipolar mood swing, myopia, hot flashes, a cell phone conversation or her untreated homocidal instincts, little Miss Daisy Buchanan—albeit a literary invention of F. Scott Fitzgerald—completely flattened Myrtle i.e. her devoted husband's favorite paramour.
It was Myrtle's second painful brush with the snobby Buchanans that day: Tom, Daisy's husband, had whopped her one for reciting Miss Daisy's name in vain; and now, Daisy had nearly made her into a hood ornament.
Aside from sending Myrtle to the Great Racetrack in the Sky, Daisy tragically crumpled the front fender of Tom Buchanan's yellow roadster and up-rooted a row mail boxes before regaining margin control of her vehicle.
It would be 24 years before the next Daisy—also of literary invention—would sit incompetantly behind the wheel.
This Daisy—a composite element of Alfred Uhry's imagination—would take out her neighbor's car, garage and tool shed: all while attempting to back her own car out of her driveway.
Unlike the waspy Daisy of Fitzgerald, this Daisy was Jewish: thoroughly ensconced in Atlanta, Georgia.
Rather than pay risk pool insurance premiums, Miss Daisy opts—with her son's insistance—to hire one Hoke Colburn to drive her for the next 25 years.
The rest of the story is contained in the 1987 Pulitzer Prize winning play DRIVING MISS DAISY by Alfred Uhry.
Most people know the play via its Academy Award winning film adaptation staring Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy.
The play was the first of three "Atlanta Trilogy" pieces by Uhry.
From now until August 17 th, the award winning Ross Valley Players (RVP) will be performing DRIVING MISS DAISY at The Barn in the Marin Garden Center.
Berton Bruno plays in Hoke in the RVP production and is clearly an accomplished and highly experienced actor.
MR Bruno creates a Hoke that brilliantly radiates all the kind human vitues implicit to his character: dignity, patience, understanding, integrity, competancy and perspicacity.
Anne Ripley is ideally cast as Daisy: she reaches the hard-boiled core of her character.
Miss Daisy is a retired elementary school teacher; MS Ripley's characterization of Daisy serves to remind some of us why we repeated the third grade as many times as we did.
Alex Shafer as Boolie—Daisy's attentive and devoted son—has captured not only his character but MR Shafer could safely drive through the deep south disguised as a cracker: MR Shafer has mastered the genteel southern drawl of the red clay states.
Would someone pass MR Shafer the black-eyed peas, the fried chicken and the Hopping John?
Director Cris Cassell's work is clearly apparent in the pacing of the play: while Daisy rapid fires her stubborn invectives and abuses, Hoke takes time to speak: subduing his reactions, measuring his response and sagaciously deflecting Miss Daisy's verbal indiscretions.
The dynamic between Hoke and Miss Daisy is gradually elevated to a profound friendship, almost exclusively due to the soul and patience of Hoke.
A Sound Designer—who is clearly very dedicated to her art—Billie Cox, has selected a most appropriate chronological collage of songs for the scene transitions in the play.
The play is essentially a string of pearls: each one a carefully crafted vignette that reveals the new directions and new dimensions added to the slowly evolving relationship between Daisy and Hoke.
While the script provides some clues as to the time period of each scene, the songs selected by MS Cox nail the era with nostalgically precise musical associations.
To say that the Ross Valley Players have embellished a masterpiece would nearly be an understatement.
This play is not to be missed.
For tickets call 415 456-9555 or visit www.rossvalleyplayers.com , yah all hear now.
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