Coming to YAT: Driving Miss Daisy – Oct 10-13

Published on: 7 Oct, 2012
Updated on: 12 Oct, 2012

Gwen Taylor as Miss Daisy and Don Warrington as Hoke Colburn

The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre will be hosting the opening show of Driving Miss Daisy next week. The critically acclaimed show begins a national tour at the Guildford theatre. The production stars Gwen Taylor, Don Warrington and Ian Porter, and runs from Wednesday, October 10^th until Saturday, October 13.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning play, written by Alfred Uhry describes the unlikely friendship between Daisy Werthan, a widowed, 72 year-old Jewish woman living in mid-century Atlanta, and her chauffeur, an African American man named Hoke Coleburn.

When Daisy is deemed too old to drive, her son Boolie hires Hoke to serve as her chauffeur. What begins as a troubled and hostile pairing soon blossoms into a profound, life-altering friendship that transcends all the societal boundaries placed between them.

The play has been a sell-out success in Broadway and the West End, most recently starring Vanessa Redgrave as Miss Daisy and James Earl Jones as Hoke Colburn. It has also been immortalized in film starring Morgan Freeman, which went on to win best picture and best adapted screenplay.

Starring in the Yvonne Arnaud’s production is renowned actress Gwen Taylor, famous for her roles as Anne Foster in Coronation Street, Peg in Heartbeat and in Monty Python’s The Life of Brian. Her theatre roles include, Calendar Girls, Prick Up Your Ears and Shirley Valentine.

Taylor is thrilled to be in the production, and speaking to The Guildford Dragon NEWS between rehearsals said: “I was really thrilled to be asked to do this role. It is a play of such political relevance and is becoming a real classic. I think it really has something to say about friendship, understanding people’s differences and being sympathetic to them.

“It is definitely a challenging role though. Not only is there the deep South accent, but I am only the same age as Miss Daisy is at the beginning of the play, 72. It was tough to act almost 20 years older, but I had many elderly relatives I could remember at that age, and drew from those memories to play Miss Daisy at the end of her life.”

Best known for playing Philip Smith in the hit TV series Rising Damp alongside Leonard Rossiter, Don Warrington plays Hoke Coleburn. Other television credits include: Red Dwarf; Lovejoy; Doctor Who; Casualty; The Crouches; New Street Law; Waking the Dead and Death in Paradise.

Tickets for Driving Miss Daisy are already on sale, and you can book by calling the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Box Office on (01483) 44 00 00 or by visiting the website at www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk