With her rubbery nose, drab suits and hair swept back in a bun, Israeli prime minister Golda Meir wasn't exactly a fashion plate back in the late 1960s and early '70s.

So when Indianapolis Civic Theatre artistic director Robert Sorbera asked Miki Mathioudakis to play Meir, the veteran local actor didn't know how to react.

"When Bob first told me what the play was about, I was really insulted," said Mathioudakis, 53, whose previous Civic roles includes the stylish opera diva Maria Callas in "Master Class."

Mathioudakis finally chose to accept the role in "Golda's Balcony" anyway. After all, Meir had "quite a few lovers" -- and was one of the world's most influential political leaders.

"I have tremendous admiration for Golda Meir," said Rabbi Arnold Bienstock, spiritual leader of Congregation Shaarey Tefilla in Indianapolis. Bienstock, a consultant for "Golda's Balcony," heard Meir speak and watched the world react while he lived in Israel in 1973, the year of the Yom Kippur War.

"I think that's the critical time in her life," Bienstock said. "That's what I guess is the moment of truth for her, the test of whether everything in her life has been worthwhile. The playwright uses it as the source of flashbacks."

The rabbi says that playwright William Gibson, who also wrote the Helen Keller play "The Miracle Worker," depicts Meir warts and all.

Born Golda Mabovitch in Russia, she grew up in Milwaukee and taught in its public schools. In 1921, she and her husband, Morris Meyerson, moved to Palestine. They settled in Jerusalem and raised two children. Eventually, she divorced and changed her name.

"This was a woman who, if she lived today, would not have gotten married," Bienstock said. "Her husband was a fine person, but he didn't want to be married to someone who was a political animal. Basically, her allegiance, her love, her passion was for Zionism and the idea for a Jewish homeland."

Meir's political career took off in the late 1920s. She served as Israel's minister of labor and its foreign minister before becoming prime minister in 1969.

"Women got the right to vote in the United States in (1920) and barely 50 years later, she became the first female prime minister of Israel," Mathioudakis said. "Our country has still never had a female president or vice president."

Mathioudakis thinks Meir's greatest legacy was helping to establish the state of Israel. She's also interested in Meir as a woman.

"I'd like to cook a meal in the kitchen with her," she said, "and just talk."

Golda's Balcony

When: Today through Nov. 16. Shows at 7 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays.

Location: Indianapolis Civic Theatre, 3200 Cold Spring Road.

Tickets: $21-$28.

Info: (317) 923-4597, www.civictheatre.org.