By Amy Elliott
On July 30 a new play, The Trial of Jane Fonda, debuted at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (running through Aug. 24). The play focuses on an event in 1988 when the actress and anti-war activist confronted a group of Vietnam veterans who were protesting at the filming location of her movie Stanley & Iris; it begins with footage of her effigy being burned, and soldiers calling her a traitor, before she is allowed to defend herself.
The play’s stated aim is to “set the record straight”; given that Fonda’s name is still mud with many veterans, this may be a much-needed retelling.
Fonda was born Lady Jayne Seymour Fonda, the child of actor Henry Fonda, on the morning of Dec. 21, 1937. Her Sun falls late in Sagittarius; her Moon is in suitably dramatic Leo, and she has a Capricorn ascendant with a Scorpio midheaven.
She tragically lost her mother to suicide when she was only twelve. By fifteen she was teaching dance; she then took on a successful career in modelling before following her father onto the stage in 1954.
Fonda’s film work commenced in 1960; the comedy Cat Ballou in 1965 turned out to be her star vehicle. An Academy Award winner (best actress for Klute in 1972), her film career was consistent until 1990, and she has continued since to appear in occasional roles in movies and television.
The controversy surrounding Fonda’s activities during the Vietnam war has been perpetuated to the present day; this has reportedly resulted in a number of hate websites dedicated to her, and a page on Snopes attempting, like The Trial, to debunk the myths surrounding her time in North Vietnam, especially around her meeting with American prisoners of war.
Jane herself has published a rebuttal on her website; here she discusses the now infamous photo of her sitting on an anti-aircraft gun: