New Release:GPT - Driving Miss Daisy

Great Plains Theatre continues 20^th Season with Driving Miss Daisy

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Set in the Deep South in 1948, prior to the start of the civil right movement, this sweet and endearing play focuses on the relationship between a cantankerous woman and her hired driver. 

 Having recently demolished another car, Daisy Werthan, played by Bonita Hanson, a rich, sharp-tongued Jewish widow of seventy-two is informed by her son, Boolie, played by Chris Delay, that from this point on, she must rely on the services of a chauffeur. The individual Boolie hires for the job is a thoughtful, unemployed black man, Hoke, played by Horace Smith, whom Miss Daisy immediately regards with disdain. Hoke in return, is not impressed with his employer’s patronizing tone and believes her to be latent prejudice. In a series of absorbing scenes spanning twenty-five years, despite their mutual differences they grow dependent on each other and eventually become an almost codependent couple.

Slowly and steadily the dignified, good-natured Hoke breaks down the stern defenses of the ornery old lady.  Miss Daisy teaches Hoke to read and write. In a gesture of good will and shared concern, she invites him to join her at a banquet in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.

As the play ends, Hoke has a final visit with Miss Daisy, now ninety-seven and confined to a nursing home. While it is evident that a hint of her fierce independence and sense of position still remain, it is also movingly clear that they both come to realize they have more in common than they ever believed possible—and that times and circumstances would ever allow them to publicly admit.

The play which takes place at the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, 200 SE 4^th Street, Abilene, runs from November 7 – 16^th.  Please call the office at 785.263.4574 or visit our website greatplainstheatre.com for tickets. 

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