'Driving Miss Daisy' to open at Oak Ridge Playhouse Friday

“Hoke, you’re my best friend.”

Perhaps the most oft-quoted line from “Driving Miss Daisy,” it also strikes at the core of the beloved story of an unlikely bond between a well-to-do Jewish woman and her African American chauffeur.

Opening Friday, May 6, Oak Ridge Playhouse is proud to bring the Alfred Uhry’s groundbreaking Pulitzer Prize-winning play to the stage to close out the 2021-2022 season.

Sparks fly when, after wrecking her car, 72-year-old widow Daisy Werthan is deemed too old to drive by her son Boolie, and Hoke Colburn is hired to serve as her driver in the Jim Crow South.

For the next 25 years, set against a backdrop of changing world events from the late 1940s to the early ‘70s, what began as a troubled and hostile pairing soon blossoms into a profound, life-altering friendship that transcends all the societal boundaries placed between them.

Written in 1987 and debuting Off-Broadway at the Playwrights Horizons Theater, two years later the play was optioned by Hollywood and made into a film. The big screen adaptation starring Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy received Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture, as well as a Best Actress statue for Tandy.

“Despite the expansiveness of the motion picture, it’s really a story about three people — a widow, her driver, and her son," said Playhouse director Reggie Law. “So I thought our approach to the production was to simply strip it down to its essence and focus on the people and the times they lived in.”

Sponsored by UT-Battelle, “Driving Miss Daisy” opens at the Playhouse on Friday, May 6, and runs selected dates through May 15. The production features Karen Brunner as Daisy and Kirk Hoxie as her Hoke, with Michael J. Higdon as Boolie.

Tickets are available for purchase online at www.orplayhouse.com or by calling (865) 482-4877. This production is also made possible by support from Tennessee Arts Commission and East Tennessee Foundation.

For the safety of our patrons and volunteers, seating will be socially distanced and masks optional, but encouraged.

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: 'Driving Miss Daisy' set to open at Oak Ridge Playhouse