At the Manhattan Ensemble Theater where the stage is about the size of a large succah and the atmosphere is as cozy and personal, it is hard to imagine how the epic-worthy life of the woman born Golda Mabovitch will translate, and in a show with a cast of one no less. That is until the theatre erupts into the sounds of battle and Tovah (Kissing Jessica Stein, Law & Order) Feldshuh in the form of a hunched over Golda materializes on stage. It is then as if the floor under her swollen feet widens and the Picassoesque Jerusalem stone paneled walls deepen - Golda has arrived and the rules of the physical universe no longer apply. Here is a woman who managed to carry millions of Jews on her bullish shoulders.

And if you were troubled by the idea of watching a lone actress for about ninety minutes, Feldshuh will calm your fears with her captivating, soul-stirring performance – that is, once she is allowed to get going.

The show, written by William (The Miracle Worker) Gibson, is structured carefully to deliver minor climaxes throughout, all on route to the final minutes where the ultimate crisis of Meir’s career came to a pass and where we learn the startling definition of Golda’s balcony.

Our narrator is a retired Golda looking back on the turmoil and tainted, stressful accomplishments of her life. Her current state is heavenly (grandchildren play in the yard of a peaceful Tel-Aviv), but she has memories from hell – and she draws herself reluctantly back into the nightmare of the Jewish circumstance during the entire twentieth century – from pogroms to DP camps, Zionism in Milwaukee to wars for independence – we of course are pulled along.

At this point I would normally give a brief biography of Golda Meir as rendered by Feldshuh who, despite being costumed as an eighty year old Meir, manages to morph herself using lighting, accents, and a rather impressive trick using projections, into half a dozen characters, including Moshe Dayan, King Abdullah, and Henry Kissinger. But, in this specific case I won’t do the homework for you. I am urging you to find the time to see this daring show, coming out at a time where audiences may not want to hear about problems in the Middle East, especially from the sympathetic Jewish perspective.

That said, I have two critical points – one technical and one literary.

The play utilizes many lighting effects to broaden the scope of the story, but one effect (lights beam in from the sides of the stage directly onto Feldshuh’s face) perhaps accidentally reveals the actress’s true face and it is a bit jarring to have the well-established image and illusion of Golda disappear.

The other, rather trying, criticism is for Gibson who, all in all, wrote a profoundly touching and sometimes humorous play (I would swear he had to be Jewish but after Adrien Brody’s performance in The Pianist, I realize there are those outside the religion who truly get it). The final minutes of the play – the pinnacle of the drama – is unnecessarily and awkwardly stretched out. We know based on a simple knowledge of history the way the story must go and therefore it becomes wearisome as the resolution builds and builds and builds. One “builds” would have been sufficient and more appropriate.