Photo Source: Ed Krieger
Jastrow's genuine curiosity about Fonda's motivation for visiting Hanoi and seemingly sympathizing with America's enemy during the Vietnam War is apparent throughout, and his authentic commitment to a layered dialogue about war and antiwar protests renders the show a success. The ensemble's acting is mostly solid, if slightly uneven, but Archer never falters in her humanizing portrayal of Fonda.
The action occurs in 1988 in Waterbury, Conn., where Fonda is set to film "Stanley & Iris." A group of Vietnam veterans rallies to boycott Fonda's film, burning her in effigy and lambasting her actions during the war. The veterans recall Fonda's 1972 trip to Hanoi, complete with footage of her singing and smiling with North Vietnamese troops, posing atop an antiaircraft gun, and participating in a press conference with American POWs that made their Vietcong captors look good.
Fonda, eager to tell her side of the story to the veterans, asks for a meeting at a local church. Though the details of the untelevised, unrecorded meeting are fictional (Jastrow notes in the program that the real-life veterans did not want to talk to him about the meeting), the events surrounding the closed-door session are carefully chronicled via effective use of news footage.
Thus, the speculation over what happened in the church takes on an air of authenticity. Archer's Fonda is simultaneously apologetic and brave, unwavering in recalling her good intentions of ending a violent, unwinnable war. In retrospect, she recognizes the emotional harm she caused the battered vets.
The passage of time since the Vietnam War lends the piece a sense of thoughtful hindsight.
Presented by and at Edgemar Center for the Arts, 2437 Main St., Santa Monica. Oct. 14-Dec. 4. Variable schedule. (310) 392-7327. www.edgemarcenter.org.