Coming off an outrageously naughty production of The Rocky Horror Show, director Joel Ferrell has switched gears to Alfred Uhry’s quiet rumination on friendship, Driving Miss Daisy. It may seem like an abrupt change of pace, but Ferrell, as he did with Rocky, has taken a work we may feel we know and presented it in a refreshing new light.
Uhry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play debuted in 1987 and was made into a film, starring Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman, three years later. Centered around a Jewish matriarch and her black chauffeur in mid-century Georgia, it’s easy to remember the piece as sentimental—more syrupy “movie of the week” than elegantly crafted drama.
Ferrell’s 85-minute, intermissionless production for Dallas Theater Center is as happily no-nonsense as the former schoolteacher Daisy Werthan, played by Annalee Jefferies. A replacement for the previously announced Oscar nominee June Squibb, who had to withdraw due to scheduling conflicts, Jefferies offers a remarkably nuanced and physical portrayal of the blunt yet proud Southern woman.
From her determined, straight-backed gait in 1948, when she argues with her son Boolie (James Crawford) that it was the car’s fault it crashed and not hers, to the uncertain, timid steps she takes in the early 1970s when her health is rapidly failing, Jefferies takes us through the ups and downs of Daisy’s life with her body as well as with her clipped speech.
When Boolie hires Hoke Coleburn against his mother’s wishes (she’s afraid having a chauffeur will make her appear uppity), it sets in motion the great push-and-pull between Jefferies and Hassan El-Amin, as Hoke. Though El-Amin relies too heavily on sitcom-style reactions to Daisy’s borderline rude comments, there are a few moments when his slicing comebacks land perfectly.
The use of the Kalita Humphreys’ turntable stage has never seemed more appropriate than with Peter Hicks’ set: one side as Daisy’s neatly kept living room and the other the back entrance to her home, where a garden bench and chairs become her car. Plenty of landings and stairs give Crawford a perch from which to make the phone calls that either move the plot along or offer humorous commentary on the action (the affection Crawford’s Boolie shows for his difficult mother keeps Daisy from seeming like a cantankerous old biddy).
Though race and religion are the obviously weighted themes that simmer throughout Uhry’s play, in this production they take a backseat to the touching friendship that forms between Daisy and Hoke. It would be a mistake to use the qualifier “unlikely” for the bond they end up sharing, as it’s clear from their first showdown of wills how similar the two are. What’s especially fun is watching El-Amin settle into his role and eventually rise to meet Jefferies, who is fully invested from the geto-go.