(CAPE MAY, NJ) -- Cape May’s famed East Lynne Theater Company will present Alfred Uhry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Driving Miss Daisy from August 2 to September 2, 2023. Driving Miss Daisy relays the story of Daisy Werthan, an elderly Southern Jewish woman, and her African-American chauffeur, Hoke Coleburn. When Miss Daisy crashes her car into a garage, her son Boolie hires Hoke to drive her wherever she needs to go. The duo forms an unlikely, decades-long friendship.
“With themes of race, ageism, antisemitism, society, and class, Driving Miss Daisy is your quintessential all-American play,” said Craig Fols, artistic director of East Lynne, as well as the director of this production. “Yet, despite these heavy themes, there is beauty from the gentle unveiling of this seemingly improbable friendship.”
Portraying Hoke Colburn is Art McFarland, who returned to acting after more than 30 years as a New York television news reporter at ABC Eyewitness News Channel 7. McFarland originated the title role in Amiri Baraka’s final play The Most Dangerous Man in America at the New Federal Theater in New York, and acted in Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None at Triad Stage in Greensboro, North Carolina. His television acting credits include “The Equalizer,” “Law & Order SVU,” and “House of Cards,” among others. He is also in the soon-to-be-released Rob Peace directed by Chiwetel Ejiafor.
Playing Daisy Werthan is actor, playwright and oral historian T. Cat Ford, who has had the honor of originating roles for various playwrights including Romulus Linney and Lanie Robertson. She appeared as Devil Woman in Linney’s Gint at the International Ibsen Festival in Oslo, Norway, and played Jessie Mae Watts in Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful at the Palace Theatre in Watford, England.
Rounding out the three-person cast is Philly-born actor, director, musician, and teacher Damon Bonetti as Boolie Werthan. Bonetti previously performed at East Lynne in Tales by Twain and Four by Four. He has acted or directed at numerous area theaters including Walnut Street, Philadelphia Theater Company, Exile, Passage, Eagle, Hedgerow, Lantern, and Theater Horizon. He is the Producing Artistic Director of the Philadelphia Artists’ Collective and a professor at Rutgers-Camden and Drexel universities.
Driving Miss Daisy runs 8:00pm Wednesdays to Saturdays, August 2 through September 2. Tickets are $35 for general admission, $30 for seniors, $20 for students and military. ELTC is in residence at Cape May Presbyterian Church, 500 Hughes St., Cape May. More information, ticket reservations and additional summer and winter shows can be found at EastLynneTheater.org.
East Lynne Theater Company is an Equity professional theater located in Cape May, New Jersey. Named after a popular melodrama of the 19th Century, East Lynne was founded in 1980 to resurrect plays from America’s theatrical past. Over the years, our mission has expanded to include contemporary work on American themes.
