Stellar cast drives ‘Daisy’

By Milan Paurich

YOUNGSTOWN — Winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Alfred Uhry’s “Driving Miss Daisy” is a work of such delicacy, soft-spoken restraint and unassuming artistry that it’s a shock to discover what a powerful spell it weaves.

The production that opened Friday night at the Oakland Center for the Arts magically transports its audience to a time and place – Atlanta, Ga., between 1948 and 1973 – through the strength and unstinting professionalism of three extraordinarily gifted actors.

Who needs sophisticated optical effects or elaborately tricked-up production design when you have performers of the caliber of Molly Galano, Johnny R. Herbert and Eric Kibler to do the heavy lifting for you?

The sweet, but never sticky tale of the evolving friendship between an elderly Jewish widow (Galano) and the black gentleman (Herbert) hired to be her chauffeur after an unfortunate accident with her beloved Chrysler, “Miss Daisy” speaks volumes about America’s racial divide without ever raising its voice.

Obstinate and prideful, Daisy initially balks at the idea of having to be driven anywhere (“I was brought up to do for myself,” she insists), not even the local Piggly-Wiggly grocery store.

Yet through a combination of Hoke’s good-humored patience and her encroaching decrepitude, the arrangement eventually bears fruit. Soon this unlikely couple – the retired schoolteacher who married well and the hard-working black man who doesn’t know how to read – has formed a bond tighter, and infinitely more loving, than most marriages.

Structured as a series of character-defining vignettes that span a quarter-century, the one-act play effortlessly conveys the passage of time through the subtlest and most economical of means.

Notice the way Galano’s purposeful stride in the earlier scenes eventually gives way to a more halting, tentative gait, or the way her facial muscles become increasingly tremulous. Like the finest actors, Galano totally inhabits her character, and Herbert and Kibler, as Daisy’s son Boolie, match her every step of the way.

Herbert mines a rich vein of humor in his role, without stinting on Hoke’s dignity or humanity. It’s a beautifully considered performance that, like the production as a whole, never descends into cutesy stereotype or counterfeit sentimentality.

And the superb Kibler makes Boolie such an endearing audience surrogate – it’s through his eyes that we watch the drama between Daisy and Hoke unfold – you’ll wish that Uhry had beefed up the role just to allow him a little more stage time.

Unlike some versions of “Driving Miss Daisy” I’ve seen where the pacing is deliberately slowed down to convey the unhurried pace of Southern living, director Terri Wilkes brings such a crackerjack sense of timing that there are no lulls in the action.

Equally impressive were the relatively seamless transitions between scenes that complement the metronome-like precision of Wilkes’ stellar achievement.

Furthermore, the Oakland staff is to be commended for one of its most attractive sets to date, and Ellen Licitra’s nuanced lighting design doesn’t miss a salient detail in either performance or set design.

If community theater at its best is truly a collaborative effort, Wilkes and company’s “Driving Miss Daisy” is a triumph for all concerned.

X “Driving Miss Daisy” runs through Saturday at the Oakland Center for the Arts. For tickets and showtimes, call (330) 746-0404.