By Patricia Morris Buckley
SDUN Theatre Critic
One-person shows are a strange animal. They tend to be more educational than entertaining because — well, there’s just one person on the stage. Even when that person plays a variety of characters, or interacts with voices offstage, we know he or she is alone, so alone, in the spotlight.
But forget every opinion you’ve heard or had about one-person shows when you go to see “Golda’s Balcony,” a one-woman show about Golda Meir at the Old Globe. When you add extraordinary writing (by William Gibson, the playwright responsible for the theater favorite “The Miracle Worker”) to an amazing performance (by Tovah Feldshuh in her Tony nominated role), you get perhaps the best one-person show ever. Really.
There’s a reason that this production is the longest running one-woman show in Broadway’s history.
Gibson’s script is a marvel. Just as a subject starts to lose its interest for us (a common problem in one-person shows), he veers off abruptly in a whole other direction. It’s as if the through line of the show is a zigzag. And there are laughs in every part, not one serious scene alternating with a humorous one. Even in the darkest of material, he adds that sting of humor we associate with the Jewish point of view.
And it’s in that that we see Meir’s character the most. Yes, she had the ability to see what a country and its people needed and her strengths made sure those needs were met (while ignoring her own family’s needs). But she approached life with a can-do, uplifting attitude, demonstrated here in her humor. Still, we see into her darkest hours as well as her lightest, the result being a fully realized portrait, not just hero worship.
Those darkest hours— the time surrounding the Yom Kippur War — frame the show. It’s when Meir had to decide whether or not to drop nuclear missiles. As she says, women bring life into the world so the idea of taking life out is foreign to them. And yet we don’t doubt her resolve to make Israel’s statehood a reality. “We intend to live,” Meir tells the audience. “Our neighbors intend us to die. There’s not much room for compromise.” (Be forewarned, this is a very pro-Israel play.)
A great script doesn’t mean that much without the sheer force-of-nature talent that Feldshuh brings to the role. Just watch her play Meir at 17 and then at 70 — both completely believable. Then she’s Meir’s overly concerned mother or her long-suffering husband, then Henry Kissinger (which is a hoot). There’s one moment when Meir is considering the destruction an atomic bomb would cause and weighing it against the loss of Israel where she drops to the floor, acting as if she’s been sucker punched in the stomach. It’s a gripping moment that adds untold depth to her performance.
Most of the production elements are impressive. Jeff Croiter’s lights do as much as Gibson’s lines to delineate scenes. Jess Goldstein’s costume is wonderfully flexible, true to Meir’s real wardrobe, and it even reshapes Feldshuh’s body to be that of an old woman. Anna Louizos’ set is a little less successful. The set is a diamond-shaped platform that nicely gives the sense of an island or a separate state, but the dining room set on the platform appears too modern. The projections are an excellent touch, but video could have been used even more to give more sense of time and place.
If one-person shows have disappointed you in the past, don’t let that stop you from seeing this show. If you have different political views, don’t let that stop you from seeing this show. If your theatre budget is tight, don’t let that stop you from seeing this show. It’s a one-person show you will never forget.
“Golda’s Balcony”
Through May 30
Old Globe Theatre
Tickets: $29-$77
234-5623
TheOldGlobe.org
