Jonestown Tragedy The People's Temple by The Laramie Project Creators
American Theater Company (Chicago, IL)
Rated 3.8 by 4 members who went.
Jonestown, Guyana, 1978: An interracial religious group, led by their charismatic leader Jim Jones, have fled America to the remote jungles of South America to build a utopian community. From the creators of The Laramie Project comes a play combining actual interviews with survivors and family members and live gospel music to tell the untold stories of a community that dreamed of a better life -- and its shocking demise.
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4 Member Reviews
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- Greg Pierce
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Greg Pierce
Member since 2008
3 Reviews
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If you think you know the story of Jim Jones and the People's Temple, you don't. This is a morality tale about self-righteousness, to be sure, but it is also about our tendency to judge events by what we see in headlines and on TV rather than trying to understand what is behind them. This play is done by the same people who brought us The Laramie Project, and they have really developed a new way of telling a story. Darryl Cox (of Profiles Theater) leads an incredibly talented cast.
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- Emily
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Emily
Member since 2008
2 Reviews
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Totally evocative and worth seeing. The set and performances are what stood out to me - and of course the story carries itself. I recommend if you don't know anything about Jonestown, researching a bit before seeing the show. It was a bit dizzying for me since I didn't know anything about Jim Jones or the People's Temple.
But now, I can't stop thinking about it! Plus the theatre is in a great location - easy to get to and great restaurants.
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- Kara Lang Guminski
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Kara Lang Guminski
Member since 2008
16 Reviews
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WOW. One of the best shows I've ever seen. This show really moved me. The acting was superb, the set design clever and unique, and the writing and research that went into making this show impressive. This show is a testament to the survivors and family members, illustrating their pain and their loss.
What impressed me most, though, was how the story was more than just what happened at Jonestown. It was the story of how a preacher who could move people with basically good ideas (integration, kindness to your neighbor) could descend into megalomania so intense that he murdered over 900 people.
I really don't know what else to say except that this show affected me in ways that theater has not affected me in a long time. BRAVO to the cast, the director, the crew, and the playwrites.
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More Details About The People's Temple
More Information
On November 18, 1978, 918 Americans died in a remote jungle in Guyana, South America: one was a United States Congressman (the only member of Congress in U.S. history to be killed in the line of duty), three were journalists and 914 were residents of the People's Temple agricultural mission known as Jonestown. More than 80 members of People's Temple who were living in Guyana survived that day. Hundreds of members living in San Francisco and Los Angeles also survived. The People’s Temple is created from verbatim interviews with those survivors as well as hundreds of archival documents housed at the California Historical Society in San Francisco.
Leigh Fondakowski (director and playwright) was the head writer of The Laramie Project and has been a member of Tectonic Theatre Project since 1995. She is an Emmy-nominated co-screenwriter for the adaptation of The Laramie Project for HBO. Her latest work, The People’s Temple, has been performed under her direction at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Perseverance Theater and The Guthrie Theater, and received the Glickman Award for Best New Play in the Bay Area in 2005. Another original play, I Think I Like Girls, premiered at Encore Theater in San Francisco under her direction and was voted one of the top 10 plays of 2002 by The Advocate. Other directing credits include 3 Seconds in the Key by Deb Margolin (San Francisco Playhouse), The Laramie Project (Berkeley Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Perseverance Theatre), La Voix Humaine by Jean Cocteau (Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh), Agatha by Marguerite Duras (French Alliance, New York), Gwen John adapted from the novel by Jane Warrick (HERE, New York) and more.
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