[NEohioPAL] "Luminous" Dorothy Silver in GOLDA'S BALCONY at Actors' Summit - CJN Review

[Thackaberr at aol.com]

Dorothy Silver is luminous in ‘Golda’s Balcony’  
BY: FRAN HELLER  Contributing Writer 
She’s  luminous.

>From first to last, and for 95 uninterrupted minutes, Dorothy  Silver 
dominates the stage as Golda Meir n Russian refugee, American Zionist,  wife, mother, 
and Israel’s first and only female prime minister in William  Gibson’s 
one-person play “Golda’s Balcony.” It’s at Actors’ Summit through April  13.  
Silver’s tour de force performance is a  capstone to a long and illustrious 
career that shows no signs of slowing down.  Sharing the podium as co-directors 
are Reuben Silver and A. Neil Thackaberry.  The end result from this 
accomplished trio is pure gold.

Walking slowly, her stooped figure wrapped in a well-worn  bathrobe, a weary 
Golda emerges from the shadows, obviously sickly and nearing  the end of her 
years. Pouring a cup of coffee, she takes a sip, oblivious, at  first, to her 
audience. Gradually, she looks up and around, her expressive eyes  taking in 
everyone as she begins her story.

It’s a journey that takes Golda from Russia, where her family  flees the 
pogroms, to Milwaukee and Denver, where she discovers her life’s  calling, and 
later to Palestine, where she helps build the new state of Israel  and becomes 
its prime minister.  
“Golda’s Balcony” is not only the story of  the birth of the state of Israel 
and the bittersweet aftermath; it is also the  saga of a strong and 
independent-minded woman breaking out of the conventional  female mold and forging a 
life for herself at great personal sacrifice and  cost.

This production is superior to the one I saw at  Playhouse Square in 2005 
starring Valerie Harper.

Silver’s formidable acting skills illuminate her character in  ways that are 
deeply moving. That Silver is a Jewish actress gives her  performance even 
greater authenticity and visceral connection. And the intimacy  of the Actors’ 
Summit stage is far more suitable than the Playhouse Square stage  for a 
one-person show.

The play’s dramatic  center revolves around the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when the 
75-year-old prime  minister receives a call in the middle of the night that 
Israel is being  attacked by Egypt and Syria. Israel faces certain annihilation 
unless Golda’s  armies get the planes and military equipment they need to 
fend off their  enemies. Her ace-in-the-hole is the threat of unleashing nuclear 
power if U.S.  President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger fail to comply with 
her request for  materiel.

The action yo-yos between the dire  political crisis surrounding the war and 
Golda’s life story. Leapfrogging  between past and present, the personal and 
the political, makes the rapid-fire  chain of events difficult to follow at 
times.   
Silver does not always draw sufficient  distinction when impersonating the 
other characters. But these are minor tics in  her galvanizing performance as 
the iron-willed Golda, conflicted between her  all-consuming role as nation 
builder and that of wife and  mother.

Dressed in costumer MaryJo Alexander’s sensible oxfords, dowdy  skirt and 
paisley blouse, her hair severely parted and knotted in the back  (great wig), 
Golda recounts her story.

At age  15, Golda, an emerging socialist, leaves home to live with her sister 
in Denver,  where she meets her future husband, Morris Meyerson. Against 
Morris’s wishes,  they move to Palestine in the early 1920s. Golda’s devotion to 
creating a Jewish  state proves disastrous to her marriage.

There are two balconies in Golda’s life: the one outside her Tel  Aviv 
apartment, from which she sees the shiploads of Jews arriving after  statehood is 
declared; the other is in Dimona, deep in the Negev, where Golda  watches the 
emergence of a nuclear-power plant, which she describes as a “gaze  into hell.” 
 
Thackaberry’s lighting and set design add  dramatic heft to the monologue.

Especially moving is Golda’s visit to Yad Vashem and the Hall of  
Remembrance. As she intones the names of the concentration camps, a single ray  of light 
immersed in the darkness of death becomes a metaphor for the triumph of  good 
over evil.

A trio of desks on raised  platforms serves as office and domicile, from 
which Golda navigates her various  roles as chief of state, wife and mother. Sharp 
direction keeps Golda moving  from one desk to the other and the audience 
riveted.

Archival photographs projected from a pair of video screens  dovetail the 
narrative to great effect. These include family pictures, images of  war, the DP 
camp at Cyprus, and President Harry Truman in the act of recognizing  the 
state of Israel.  
The intermittent sounds of a ticking clock  and the rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire 
heighten the notion of a people struggling to  survive. Survival is synonymous 
with the Jewish people, says Golda, which  elicited an audible murmur of 
assent from the audience, including this  viewer.

This year, Israel celebrates the 60th anniversary of its birth as  a Jewish 
state. Gibson’s 2002 award-winning play, which was presented  off-Broadway and 
on Broadway in 2003, sadly resonates with a more pessimistic  ring in 2008. 




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