During a trip she made to Hanoi as an anti-war activist at the height of the Vietnam War, Jane Fonda posed for a photo she would forever regret. <br /><br />In the controversial picture, the actress is seen sitting astride a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun, laughing with locals. <br /><br />Now, a play aiming to tell the truth behind the photo is premiering at the Edinburgh fringe festival. <br /><br />‘The Trial of Jane Fonda’ dramatises a meeting that took place later between Fonda and Vietnam veterans, where she apologised for the harm she caused.<br /><br />Fonda herself has not been involved in the play, written and directed by award-winning director Terry Jastrow, but he explained there was a connection: “She (Jane Fonda) came to my house in Los Angeles and we met for a couple of hours, but the first hour or so she did everything she could to talk me out of doing the story. But I felt, as much as I have respect for her – very much respect for her – I feel the story is so important to be told to set the record straight. And so I finally convinced her.”<br /><br />During her trip to Hanoi in July 1972, Fonda made 10 radio broadcasts in which she denounced American political and military leaders as “war criminals”. <br /><br />Jastrow’s wife, Oscar-nominated actress Anne Archer – also a political activist – stars as Jane Fonda in the play. <br /><br />“I respond to her courage, you make mistakes, she admits it, she made terrible mistakes. There’s not every part of her life I could have lived, certainly. And I’m a very different person, I’m a much more relaxed person. She’s very focused when she cares about something and she does a lot of thorough research. I’ve embraced that to play the character,” Archer said.<br /><br />Also a vocal supporter of feminist causes, Fonda has been a life-long anti-war activist. She strongly opposed the war in Iraq, which she said would turn people all over the world against the United States. <br /><br />‘The Trial of Jane Fonda’ is on at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh this summer.
