Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Hawkish Israeli stateswoman makes funny, too

Golda's Balcony at New Village Arts

Rosina Reynolds
Rosina Reynolds

Worlds collide in Golda’s Balcony. Golda Mabovitch (Myerson), the young idealist from Milwaukee who dreams of a Jewish homeland, wrestles with Golda Meir, the hawkish Israeli stateswoman she becomes. The communal peace of the kibbutz butts against the nuclear arsenal Meir knows she must use to protect the homeland. The sons and daughters of Isaac and Ishmael — cousins in blood and history — still collide.

Golda's Balcony

Golda’s two balconies are actual precipices upon which the fourth Israeli prime minister once stood. They are not physical structures in the play, but thematic conflicting forces that defined her life and reign. The view of the Mediterranean Sea from her home in Tel Aviv symbolizes hope and homecoming; from the other, she oversaw the creation of Israel’s nuclear weapons facility in a barren desert landscape.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“What happens when idealism becomes power?” Meir asks, facing the audience. Playwright William Gibson offers no direct answer in the 90-minute telling of Meir’s life. Instead, he exposes the moral undercurrent of a woman marred in conflict so we may answer for ourselves.

The stage design connotes the desolation of war. One long, seemingly endless wooden table fills most of the stage. A single black rotary phone, ashtray, and a handful of everyday desk chairs dress the scene. Steel-gray panels frame the set. Even the pale-olive polyester skirt and sweater Meir wears reflect utility.

There is one deviation to the sterile tableaux. A vibrant sea of turquoise runs from end to end through the pine-colored table. This symbol of life’s source — or the river Jordan — disrupts the status quo and suggests a symbol of life’s source, like the complex human it represents.

Rosina Reynolds exudes passion and practicality as Golda. When the play begins, she sits atop a box in front of a mirror, exchanges a stylish red wig for a graying bun, and waits as the audience settles. At moments she makes us laugh: “How does a housewife decide between generals?” The Yom Kippur War of 1973 exposed the internal conflicts of her cabinet and her own moral fiber.

Gibson weaves past with present throughout the script. Munitions and air-strikes replace youthful dreams of a free and peaceful Jewish homeland. Reynolds oscillates between Meir’s girlish wonderment and mature resolve with the charm of a master storyteller. When she threatens nuclear war if Kissinger does not send those “damn Phantoms” (fighter jets) he promised, Meir’s passion comes to life.

Hope resonates through Reynolds’s measured delivery when she speaks of Russian immigrants who “out” themselves as Jews in her presence. Pain emerges from her cracking voice as she tells of refugees who hid from Nazis or face certain death.

Reynolds’s performance, like Gibson’s script, exposes the current of human emotion masked by hard choices. At the core is hope for peace despite conflict. As Meir tells us, “Shalom, salaam…there is so narrow a difference in how we say peace.”

Playing through June 26

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Todd Gloria gets cash from McDonald's franchise owners

Phil's BBQ owner for Larry Turner
Next Article

Morricone Youth, Berkley Hart, Dark Entities, Black Heart Procession, Monsters Of Hip-Hop

Live movie soundtracks, birthdays and more in Balboa Park, Grantville, Oceanside, Little Italy
Rosina Reynolds
Rosina Reynolds

Worlds collide in Golda’s Balcony. Golda Mabovitch (Myerson), the young idealist from Milwaukee who dreams of a Jewish homeland, wrestles with Golda Meir, the hawkish Israeli stateswoman she becomes. The communal peace of the kibbutz butts against the nuclear arsenal Meir knows she must use to protect the homeland. The sons and daughters of Isaac and Ishmael — cousins in blood and history — still collide.

Golda's Balcony

Golda’s two balconies are actual precipices upon which the fourth Israeli prime minister once stood. They are not physical structures in the play, but thematic conflicting forces that defined her life and reign. The view of the Mediterranean Sea from her home in Tel Aviv symbolizes hope and homecoming; from the other, she oversaw the creation of Israel’s nuclear weapons facility in a barren desert landscape.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“What happens when idealism becomes power?” Meir asks, facing the audience. Playwright William Gibson offers no direct answer in the 90-minute telling of Meir’s life. Instead, he exposes the moral undercurrent of a woman marred in conflict so we may answer for ourselves.

The stage design connotes the desolation of war. One long, seemingly endless wooden table fills most of the stage. A single black rotary phone, ashtray, and a handful of everyday desk chairs dress the scene. Steel-gray panels frame the set. Even the pale-olive polyester skirt and sweater Meir wears reflect utility.

There is one deviation to the sterile tableaux. A vibrant sea of turquoise runs from end to end through the pine-colored table. This symbol of life’s source — or the river Jordan — disrupts the status quo and suggests a symbol of life’s source, like the complex human it represents.

Rosina Reynolds exudes passion and practicality as Golda. When the play begins, she sits atop a box in front of a mirror, exchanges a stylish red wig for a graying bun, and waits as the audience settles. At moments she makes us laugh: “How does a housewife decide between generals?” The Yom Kippur War of 1973 exposed the internal conflicts of her cabinet and her own moral fiber.

Gibson weaves past with present throughout the script. Munitions and air-strikes replace youthful dreams of a free and peaceful Jewish homeland. Reynolds oscillates between Meir’s girlish wonderment and mature resolve with the charm of a master storyteller. When she threatens nuclear war if Kissinger does not send those “damn Phantoms” (fighter jets) he promised, Meir’s passion comes to life.

Hope resonates through Reynolds’s measured delivery when she speaks of Russian immigrants who “out” themselves as Jews in her presence. Pain emerges from her cracking voice as she tells of refugees who hid from Nazis or face certain death.

Reynolds’s performance, like Gibson’s script, exposes the current of human emotion masked by hard choices. At the core is hope for peace despite conflict. As Meir tells us, “Shalom, salaam…there is so narrow a difference in how we say peace.”

Playing through June 26

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The danger of San Diego's hoarders

The $1 million Flash Comics #1
Next Article

Temperature inversions bring smoggy weather, "ankle biters" still biting

Near-new moon will lead to a dark Halloween
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader