Driving Miss Daisy

by Alfred Uhry

Paperback, 1987

Status

Available

Publication

New York, N.Y. Dramatists Play Service, c1987.

Description

Racial tensions are delicately explored when a warm friendship evolves between an elderly Jewish woman and her black chauffeur. Winner of a 1988 Pulitzer Prize, and Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.

User reviews

LibraryThing member bookworm12
This play spans a few decades and chronicles the budding friendship between an old cranky, Jewish woman, Daisy, and her driver, a black man named Hoke. Over the years their relationship changes from a business one to that of old friends. The dialogue is wonderful and though it is a short play, I
Show More
quickly felt attached to the characters.
Show Less
LibraryThing member lkernagh
Most individuals have seen the film adaptation of this play staring Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman and know the premise: The relationship between a Southern-Jewish matron, Miss Daisy Werthan and her black chauffeur Hoke Coleburn, hired by the son Boolie Werthan to keep his mother from getting
Show More
behind the wheel of another car.

Winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the play is surprisingly sparse - my copy was a mere 51 pages in length - for a play that spans 25 years (1948 - 1973) and touches on the civil rights movement and growing desegregation of the time period. The play has only three characters - Miss Daisy, Hoke and Boolie - so one can be excused if left with a feeling that the film adaptation with 22 characters and a run time of 99 minutes would be a more satisfying experience. I think the play, as sparsely written as it is, provides the actors with framework to make something great. The dialogue with its sparing banter is the anchor of the play, no doubt about that, but it is the progression over time and the development of the relationship between Miss Daisy and Hoke where the actors have the ability to make the play really shine.

I have never seen the stage version of Driving Miss Daisy but after reading the play, I will be keeping my eyes open for such an opportunity in the future. If you have some time and have never read a play before, this is one that any reader will have an easy time following. There are no confusing stage directions and minimal action for the reader to try to visualize in their mind while reading this play.
Show Less
LibraryThing member hailelib
Driving Miss Daisy packs a lot into its 51 pages and rings true to me as to time and place. Exploring both aging and the changes in the relationship between Miss Daisy and Hoke, Uhry held my attention all thought this small prize-winning gem. Recommended.
LibraryThing member OscarWilde87
Driving Miss Daisy is a short episodic play in 25 scenes written by Alfred Uhry. It was first staged in 1987 and the screenplay was adapted for a 1989 movie. The play is set in Atlanta between 1948 and 1973. The story is quite simple, not least due to the fact that there are only three characters,
Show More
namely Hoke Colburn, Miss Daisy's chauffeur, Miss Daisy Werthan, a Jewish lady who is 72 years old at the beginning of the play, and Boolie Werthan, Miss Daisy's son. Driving Miss Daisy starts with Daisy crashing her car in her own driveway and her son hiring Hoke as her chauffeur. At first the relationship between Daisy and Hoke is tense as Daisy insists that she is perfectly able to drive herself and does not need someone to drive her around. Throughout the play, the relationship between Hoke and Daisy becomes more friendly. The play ends when Hoke visits 'Miss Daisy', now age 97, in a nursing home.

The relationship between an old Jewish lady and a black chauffeur in the American South of 1948 provides an exemplary glance at what life was like in the US at that time. Both characters belong to a minority and both, while different, have their own struggles and fears. Not for nothing the play has won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was staged on Broadway in 2010 after starting out off-Broadway in 1987. 4 stars.
Show Less

Awards

Language

Barcode

1380
Page: 0.2999 seconds