By Carol Davis
SAN DIEGO—There is something magical about seeing Tovah Feldshuh playing Golda Meir in her one-woman show, Golda’s Balcony by William Gibson now playing at the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park through May 30th.
From the moment she walks on to the stage, to the time she takes her last of many curtain calls, every person in the audience on opening night was mesmerized by her performance as the irascible Golda Meir.
Four times Tony nominee, Tovah Feldshuh is an Old Globe associate but from her long absence on our local stage one would hardly know unless one was on that theatre track many moons ago and had the opportunities to see her as an ingénue. That was almost thirty years ago. According to Feldshuh, once you become an associate artist of the Globe, ‘you kind of disappear’. Such a truism! Let’s hope we are able to have Feldshuh back before another thirty years passes us by.
Her performance of Golda Meir is a blockbuster of a show and a must see. As the quintessential Meir, Feldshuh who was honored by a Drama Desk Award for solo performance, is transformed into one of the most powerful leaders of the free world with the help of a wig, prosthetic nose, a fat suit and stubby legs, one with varicose veins. (Scott Schwartz is credited as Production Consultant and Nell Balaban as assistant director) In fact in one scene she shares, as Meir, that her grandson wanted to know “why one of her legs was fatter that the other?”
However, it’s not the nose, the wig (Paul Huntley) the fat suit and the legs that make her character so real. That’s window dressing for the senses. It’s the way Feldshuh exemplifies the essence of the young fiery Zionist, the teenager in love, the daughter, the wife the mother, the schoolteacher, the chalutznick (pioneer), the kibbutznick, the fundraiser, the diplomat and the leader of the tiny state of Israel in 1969 during the War of Attrition through 1973 and the Yom Kippur war. She was 71. She finally stepped down at 75.
The play opens to the sounds of bombs and bullets. (Alex Hawthorn)It is a memory play of sorts. Meir is now 75, retired and dying of cancer but her spirit reflects her life as she goes back and forth in Gibson’s play of the immigrant girl from Russia to Milwaukee and ultimately on the road to being the fourth prime minister of the State Israel and one of the most powerful world leaders.
As Meir, Feldshuh is chatty, angry, passionate, unforgiving and unrelenting in her quest to save Israel from destruction at any cost and that might include using nuclear weapons. In fact the way she went about saving the country was exactly the way she led her life, barely compromising. In a series of revealing moments she details her relationship with her husband Morris who, according to her was gentle, mild and more at peace with himself than she could ever be.
He was a sign painter who later did bookkeeping to earn a meager living. He was completely detached from her world but understood her passion and eventually let go. He hated the kibbutz life style of raising chickens. He loved music, particularly Bach, poetry and literature. After he took ill, he persuaded her to move to Tel Aviv with him, which she hated, and then later to Jerusalem where she found work. By that time she was already involved in politics and the two drifted when she became immersed in Zionist political activities. Their two children were born in Jerusalem.
But most of the dialogue reveals her dealing with the tactics, strategies and lack of preparedness and equipment surrounding the Yom Kippur War. Her relationships with the powerful men surrounding her, Moshe Dyan, (whom she confesses an affair; one of the many she confesses to) David Ben Gurion, (BG), Simcha Dinitz and David “Dado” Elazar all of whom she relied on heavily, much to her chagrin later on, put her in a league no woman before had forged.
She spoke of other powerful men she influenced or who influenced her. Henry Kissinger, with whom she exchanged many angry, anxious, pleading and compelling phone calls, King Abdullah with whom she appealed to for peace, he in exchange asked her to move more slowly and wait another year, (“We will have peace with the Arabs, when they love their children more than they love war.” GM), and with Pope Paul VI who “chastised her for her country’s fierceness”.
In a humorous exchange she recalled how she had to be covered from head to toe and smuggled into Abdullah’s country so no one would recognize her. But being who she was, she couldn’t contain her cover and had to look at him face to face.
Watching Feldshuh perform as Meir is like watching Meir herself (an I’m old enough to remember). Her mannerisms and her change of speech patterns as she goes back and fourth to the characters of her parents, Kissinger, her personal secretary, Lou Kaddar, King Abdullah, and Moshe Dyan and back to her facing her own demons and dilemmas is seamless. Her body movements, her humor and her ability to suck you in to her drama are the trademarks of the great lady herself as she shares her personal as well as her public persona throughout the evening.
The play is ninety minutes long (give or take a few) and packed with facts, personalities and history. It is an inside look at what a struggling nation, one built from the ashes of the concentration camps, six million of them (and the anti Semitism stirred up in both the United States and Germany), and its leaders had to deal with to form a safe haven for those souls and those struggling to survive the nightmare.
In what was to be her final bow, (standing ovation only) Ms. Feldshuh was genuinely moved to say a few words to her adoring audience. After thanking everyone at the Globe from Executive Producer Louis Spisto to the late Craig Noel, she shared a personal note, one she tells her own children. “I lived to see integration in the South, the Wall come down in Berlin and the breakup of Communism in Russia. I hope I live to see the day when there is peace in the Middle East”.
And as for her balcony? Well that would be in Dimona, so far underground that it never sees the light of day.
“The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight.” Golda Meir.
“We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon – no alternative.” GM
If you miss this show, you are missing a world class act.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: May 1st – 30th
Organization: Old Globe Theatre
Phone: 619-234-5623
Production Type: One woman Show
Where: Balboa Park, 1363 Old Globe Way
Ticket Prices: $29-$77.00
Web: theoldglobe.org
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Davis is a San Diego-based theatre critic