DRIVING MISS DAISY Arrives In York
Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer Award-winning play Driving Miss Daisy comes to York Theatre Royal from 7 - 29 June with Paula Wilcox, Cory English and Maurey Richards in leading roles and York Theatre Royal Associate Artist Suzann McLean directing.
Made famous by the 1989 Academy Award-winning film with Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy, this comedy-drama is set against a backdrop of prejudice, inequality and the American Civil Rights movement.
When proud Daisy Werthan crashes her car, her son decides to hire a driver for her - African-American Hoke Colburn. Daisy and Hoke's relationship gets off to a rocky start but, as times change over two decades, a profound friendship blossoms between them.
Director Suzann McLean, Associate Artist at York Theatre Royal, says: "Driving Miss Daisy is a love story about two unlikely individuals who form a friendship in the South during the time of the civil rights movement.
"The play spans 25 years of the Jewish and African American communities living in Atlanta. Key moments in history from the Temple bombing in 1958 to Martin Luther King Jr's Nobel peace prize dinner in 1964 force us to re-examine where we are as a society today."
Paula Wilcox (Daisy) starred in two classic 1970s TV comedy series Man About the House and The Lovers. Recent TV includes Ben Elton's BBC comedy Upstart Crow (as Shakespeare's mother), Kay Mellor's Girlfriends, Living the Dream, Mount Pleasant, The Queen's Nose and Emmerdale. Theatre credits include What Shadows (Birmingham Rep/Park Theatre), Kindertransport (UK tour), Miss Haversham in Great Expectations (UK tour & Vaudeville Theatre), Bea (Soho Theatre), Canary (Liverpool Everyman, Hampstead Theatre), Dreams of Violence (Soho Theatre), La Cage Aux Folles (Playhouse Theatre), Odd Couple (Apollo Theatre) and The Memory of Water (UK tour).
Cory English (Boolie) began his career on Broadway in musical theatre, including Hello Dolly with Carol Channing and Gypsy with Tyne Daly. He moved to the UK to study classical theatre and now lives in London. He starred in The Producers at Drury Lane Theatre Royal and on tour, and played Igor in the West End production of Mel Brooks Young Frankenstein.
Maurey Richards (Hoke) counts Carmen Jones (Old Vic), Buddy! (Victoria Palace), Starlight Express (Apollo Victoria and national tour) and Porgy and Bess (Savoy) among his West End credits. He has been a member of The Platters vocal and recording group for the last ten years.
Suzann McLean (director): Suzann McLean (director): Suzann is Artistic Director of Theatre Peckham. Directing credits include Catcher at York Theatre Royal, which won the Pulse Festival, Extremism (Dorfman as part of NTC), Rebellion (Hackney Empire), The Sisterhood (in Bermuda) and This Child for Pilot Theatre company for whom she also worked as Assistant Director and actor in the TMA award-winning play Looking for JJ. Suzann is founder of Young and Talented now in its 15th year. As an actor, Suzann has worked extensively on both stage and screen, from playing Isabella in the National Theatre's Measure for Measure to two series of Bafta-nominated comedy Little Miss Jocelyn on TV. Most recent credits include the upcoming TV Series Good Omens and 2019 film Sulphur and White. Suzann is best known for winning a British Arrows Best Performance award for BUPA for living commercial.