In mid-20thcentury Atlanta, Georgia, the ageing Daisy (Gwen Taylor) needs a driver and Hoke (Don Warrington) needs a job.  With Daisy’s son Boolie (Ian Porter) as go-between, the relationship flourishes, transcending divisions of race and wealth.

It is not the actors’ fault that some of the opening exchanges were difficult to follow as my ear adjusted to the unfamiliar, though sufficiently convincing accents.  Taylor is a suitably flustered and stubborn old lady, though her pride diminishes poignantly as she ages over the play’s span of a quarter of a century.  Her relationship with her driver grows more pleasant as it becomes more dependent and habituated.  Warrington, who revels a role with all the best lines, carries himself unassumingly, but on the few occasions his character flares up, he effects the change believably.  Porter, on the other hand, is too abrupt, gluing his hands to his face to convey his frustrations; not that Alfred Uhry’s script gives him much of a chance, as his part is increasingly sidelined.

With as much of the action taking place in a car, the staging of the car was crucial yet unobtrusive, its rotating platform receiving plenty of supportive chuckles.  Scene changes more generally were inconsistently marked, and more than once it took a couple of lines to confirm that a new scene had begun.  This was not helped by the occasional piece of sloppy set movement, in particular a kitchen table that was pointlessly scraped back by just a metre at a time.

The projection of the background scenery, however, was inspired, the Arts Theatre stage being deep enough to avoid the scenes being interrupted by the actors’ shadows.  As well as locating us in a graveyard and the local Piggly Wiggly grocery store car park, this device allowed sparing integration of well-selected images from the American Civil Rights movement.

Yet for all that, this is not a play just about white/black.  While race was the clearest divide at the time the play is set, the drama also points to other divides, such as wealth and religion, making this a study of interdependence that remains that remains pertinent in our age.