Golda's Balcony

Is any 20th-century life more compelling than that of Israeli prime minister and all-around tough broad Golda Meir? Playwright William Gibson certainly wouldn’t have us think otherwise. His one-woman tribute (somehow the word play isn’t devout enough) cherry-picks the deal-breaker moments from Meir’s life and zealously patches them together—if nothing else, bracingly conveying the burden shouldered by the few global citizens who will ever have to consider resorting to nuclear weapons.

Using a series of flashbacks, Golda’s Balcony attempts to present a fair and balanced look at a trailblazing woman by putting some of her faults (she was neither the world’s best wife nor farsighted in her early activism) on display. Harper, as Meir and a handful of others, brings studied technical proficiency and actorly generosity that both colors Meir’s life and fills the gorgeously renovated former Schubert Theater, although she never overwhelms us enough that we don’t notice the play’s workmanlike quality and hopeless one-sidedness.

Still, a night with Golda is a memorable one which begs the most challenging of questions about human survival. And one theatrical question: When will a play give us a glimpse of life on the other side of the fence?—Christopher Piatt