'Driving Miss Daisy': A Smooth Performance, Maybe Too Smooth

The nomadic Prince William Little Theatre, temporarily calling Baldwin Elementary School in Manassas home, is staging "Driving Miss Daisy," the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about the 30-year friendship between an aged Southern woman and her almost-as-old African American chauffeur.

Playwright Alfred Uhry created iconic figures when he gave life to Miss Daisy and Hoke, crafting a tale that is sweet but not maudlin, with plenty of homespun charm. Daisy is 72 and long widowed when we meet her in 1943, just after she has crunched her car. Concerned middle-aged son Boolie hires Hoke, about 10 years Daisy's junior, to drive her around.

Daisy is feisty and isn't about to give up her independence, however, and she engages Hoke in a test of wills. Hoke, just as strong-willed but with his strength cloaked in quiet dignity, doesn't give up, and she eventually stops resisting. She moves from indifference to respect, and the pair develop a true friendship despite the social strictures in which they operate.

Through a series of vignettes over the years from the 1940s through the civil rights era and beyond, the automotive odd couple realize they have more in common than is obvious. The play is a no-frills character study that is perfectly suited to the small stage Prince William Little Theatre is using for now, as it continues to search for a permanent venue.

Director Susy Moorstein put together a few simple backdrops and props that suggest the interior of Miss Daisy's home, Boolie's office, a nursing home and, of course, the cars in which the pair traveled. Those cars are merely two chairs on a small platform, but the focus is on the characters being brought to life by Mona Kay Helper and Ardith Collins, so chairs are perfectly adequate.

Moorstein has set an unhurried pace, complementing the gentle nature of the material, but the characters are so richly drawn here that time passes rapidly.

Helper and Collins carefully nurture their onstage chemistry, allowing the warmth between the characters to develop naturally. Helper has the more obvious changes to make, and she skillfully allows Daisy's resistance to melt, while Collins has a more constant personality to display, softening slightly as Miss Daisy adapts herself to him. As the years pass, they become like brother and sister, shown with particular effectiveness as she practically feeds him his lunch over the divide separating front seat from back.

As Boolie, Bryan Marsh offers a fine performance as the concerned son, adding nuance and grit to the underwritten role of a man who seems almost too good to be true.

The two lead actors may have allowed their characters to get a little too comfortable, however, which lets some of the dramatic air out of several scenes. One of those is the challenging moment when Hoke, angry that Daisy refuses to let him stop the car to relieve himself on a long journey, finally declares his manhood and stops the car. Helper and Collins's performance is too low-key to have much dramatic impact.

Likewise, when Daisy gently patronizes Hoke as he is driving her to a dinner honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the two underplay the scene. It is another lost opportunity to show with clarity the hidden but cruel gulfs that exist between them.

The specter of race may hover in the background but is never the main issue here. Daisy, Boolie and Hoke all seem to be unusually devoid of prejudice or resentments. Collins does offer a few hints of what Hoke must have worked hard to submerge, however, and it might be interesting to see that aspect of his personality explored a bit more. Oddly, Moorstein has not seen to it that her actors show the aging process much. Thirty years may pass on the calendar, but their appearance, movements and bearing never change.

But those are small points compared with the overall charm of the story and the skill with which Helper and Collins make us come to care for both Miss Daisy and Hoke.

"Driving Miss Daisy" continues through Oct. 28, performed by Prince William Little Theatre at Baldwin Elementary School, 9705 S. Main St., Manassas. Showtime Fridays and Saturdays is 8 p.m., with a matinee Sunday at 3. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and students, and $6 for children. To purchase tickets, call 703-330-7796 or visithttp://www.pwlt.org.