Playwright: Leigh Fondakowski
At: American Theater Company,
1909 W. Byron
Phone: 773-409-4125; $35-$40
Runs through: Sept. 22
If it's answers or carnage you're after, 'The People's Temple' will fail you on both counts. And that's to the credit of this near-mesmerizing docu-drama about the individuals who died—and in a very few cases survived—that day in November, 1978, when Jim Jones turned a remote outpost in a Guyana rainforest turned into a killing field.
The People's Temple. Photo by Michael Brosilow
There are no scenes of people lining up to drink poison in the docudrama penned by the creators of the Laramie Project, no bodies sprawled across the stage and absolutely no tidy psychological summation explaining precisely how and why 918 people came to die in Jonestown. Only two things are really clear at the close of this harrowing, enthrallingly told story:
The first is that the Jonestown deaths weren't suicides. Or, as survivor Tim Carter, puts it in one riveting scene: 'It was fucking murder. There was no choice.' And the second: The People's Temple wasn't an enclave of religious whackos. As a stellar ensemble makes poignantly clear, it was daughters who affectionately signed letters home, 'Love, Anna Banana.' It was proud parents who doted on their babies. It was nurses and lawyers and social-justice activists crucial to the success of California's mainstream politicos. It was civil-rights leaders who founded Indiana's first integrated church and were honored alongside the likes of Angela Davis and Eldridge Cleaver.
So what went so horrifically wrong? Ultimately, The People's Temple raises more questions than it answers. With dialogue culled from hundreds of interviews and archival material, the story is both heartbreaking and frightening. Directed by Leigh Fondakowski ( who also spearheaded the creation of the piece and is one of its co-writers ) , the ensemble creates a rich panorama of characters and history, beginning with the late 1950s when Jim Jones founded the first integrated church in Indiana and continuing all the way through to those nightmarish hours in 1978 when almost 1,000 people died.
Backed by towering rows of file boxes ( set designer Sara Lambert captures the vast scope of the tragedy, as the boxes are revealed to contain the personal effects of various survivors ) , cast members embody the divergent personalities that made up the People's Temple. The script is infused with gospel music, and as the ensemble breaks into song, it is abundantly clear that a sense of truly joyful community defined the early days of the People's Temple.
At the dangerous heart of the piece is, of course, Jim Jones, played primarily by Darrell W. Cox ( everyone in the cast plays several roles ) with unnerving charisma. When he first appears in Jones' trademark aviator sunglasses and perfectly fitting suit, the moment is both terrifying and compulsively watchable. The same could be said for the entire production.