The Trial Of Jane Fonda, Park Theatre

I was in Hangmen and am now in The Trial of Jane Fonda and have literally no idea what your post is actually saying.

Congrats on being in "Hangmen," which was one of my highlights of last year.

This play was not, though I hope others get more out of it than I did. While I would generally not wish to say negative things about anything, I have very much appreciated other people sharing their views about plays, both positive and negative, so I share my views here as a thank you to them, who have taught me a great deal about theatre.

My views about the flaws of this play can be gleaned from my first line.

The rest uses "Hangmen" as a template, to illustrate how these flaws worked on my mind to disappoint and annoy me. I used a template to describe the play's effect on me partly because this play also uses a template in it's construction, namely "12 Angry Men."

What the play misses is that in "12 Angry Men," the men are not actually all angry. They are a spectrum of nuanced types, of whom only Lee J Cobb's character is consistently abusive. In "The Trial of Jane Fonda," by contrast, the protesters are universally abusive, a raging mob of anger against which Fonda's character is portrayed as cool, calm and collected. This is condescending to the Veterans. It has been more than a decade since Fonda's anti-war activities, and in all that time they have remained angry, incoherent and brutish, and their arguments are demeaned by this.

Fonda's ability to get each of them to change their minds, to varying degrees, after a mere chat, patronises these Vets, who have been considering the issues for many years. She comes off as a Superwoman talking to intellectual midgets.

What my admittedly awful play synopsis was supposed to demonstrate is how predictable and patronising the use of the "12 Angry Men" template is in your play, just as it is in my synopsis. I was not surprised once, not even once, and that is unforgivable, given that I paid good money and spent precious time to travel and watch it.

There was one moment when I felt the electric charge of engagement, and it was when Fonda's terrible childhood was mentioned. Why oh why did that set-up come to nothing?

Here are some things I liked about your production:

(1) Awesome clips of Jane Fonda! What a woman!;

(2) Great set, all those wars written into the American flag;

(3) Alex Gaumond in a non-musical role. He was so good at modulating his anger and arguments, that for a second I saw him as a character, rather than a cipher.

One remarkable thing about this forum is it's tendency to turn theatrical lemons into lemonade. Although I felt cheated by the play, I learned something worthwhile by formulating my thoughts about it in the form of that silly synopsis. And now I get to reenact the play the way it should have been written by engaging with you.

Unlike the soldiers in this play, you did not abuse me, albeit you inevitably are irritated by my views. And unlike Jane Fonda, I'm not going to be able to convince you that my views are anything other than irritating. Because this is real life, like the Brexit vote, not a phony and predictable play construction.

I truly hope other people on this board love your play, and maybe, if their expectations are reduced by my words, they will. Best wishes.