I don’t stand to applaud at the end of many shows.

I did for this one.

“The People’s Temple” currently on stage at the Guthrie Theater, is a compelling ensemble piece. It manages to distill a myriad of characters and a very complex time in our nation’s history, and an equally complex movement toward social justice, into a single evening. How good people fighting for a good cause, and a better world, can lose their way, is a tantalizing and tragic question. The fact that a lot of the same issues they wrestled with back then - race, poverty, religion, freedom - are still being struggled over in this country nearly thirty years later makes “The People’s Temple” a timely cautionary tale for us all at the start of the 21st century.

But “The People’s Temple” isn’t what you might fear it to be - a sensationalistic treatment of a mass suicide, led by a paranoid zealot. Because “The People’s Temple,” like the real events it explores, isn’t just about that final night, and isn’t just about the Rev. Jim Jones. In fact, we don’t end up learning a lot about Jim Jones. In many ways, the leader of The People’s Temple congregation remains a mystery. What we do learn about, and the strength of this production, is the people who surrounded Jones. His family, his followers, those that believed, those that lost faith, and those that tried to understand and get at the truth behind the public face of the church, and the rumors that followed it wherever it went.

Writer/director Leigh Fondakowski, and her co-writers Greg Pierotti, Stephen Wangh and Margo Hall, have gathered over three years’ worth of interviews and research into a living breathing testament to both those who survived, and those who did not. There is a moment toward the end of the production where pictures of the faces of those who lost their lives in Jonestown, Guyana in 1978 are placed in view of the audience. Just like this moment, the whole production puts a human face on a strange and inhuman event.

Many of the people involved in this production were also part of the Tectonic Theatre Project which created “The Laramie Project” in response to the brutal 1998 murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard. “The People’s Temple” employs many of the same theatrical conventions as its predecessor. Each member of the twelve person ensemble takes on many roles. Each real-life character is introduced and identified. Each subject speaks in their own words. This theater production is almost an onstage version of a documentary film. But because it is on stage and live, rather than recorded and static, it packs an extra punch.

The only reason this piece of theater isn’t getting five stars from me is that ultimately, it didn’t move me. I was engaged, I was fully attentive, I feel I learned a great deal and understand so much more. But I wasn’t moved. This may not be a fair yardstick to use, however. “The People’s Temple” and the people behind this production aren’t after that, I think. They’re not looking for a knee-jerk reaction. They’re not looking to push people’s buttons, or get a response by playing on cheap sentiment. And frankly, the sense of dread I felt from before the show began, knowing where these people were headed, may have kept me personally from wanting to engage too much, too care too much. I found myself actively trying to observe the whole play from a safer emotional distance.

The power of this piece comes from the fact that it presents its subjects plainly in a straightforward manner. “The People’s Temple” doesn’t ask you to feel a certain way about the people involved in this movement. It doesn’t stack the deck for or against anyone. Everyone, in their own way, contributed to the final outcome, whether they meant to or not. Everyone, in their own way, tried to keep the movement on track, to prevent the kind of horror that unfolded at the end. There’s plenty of guilt and innocence to go around, for everyone, including us. The People’s Temple, for many, was a refuge from a society that didn’t value them. It is a society we still live in today. The players may have changed, but the inequity and injustice continues. This is the kind of theater that fully engages your brain, and allows you to make up your own mind about how you ought to feel. It is distancing, and at times unsettling, but nonetheless undeniable.

Sarah Lambert’s set design is deceptively simple - shelves, some of them mobile, with row upon row of white filing boxes. From these boxes come not only paper documents and photographs, but music, and most importantly, Gabriel Berry’s costumes for the ensemble cast. Though many of the speedy costume changes take place offstage, just as many take place in full view of the audience. An accessory or two, and an actor is transformed - things as benign as hats, or as ultimately menacing as Jim Jones’ signature sunglasses. The staging is highly theatrical, using nearly every possible entrance in the Guthrie space. Though the space in act two takes on some of the trappings of the jungle city of Jonestown, it is at its most effective when it is most spare - with human stories emerging from the seemingly sterile archive room.

Each member of the cast has standout moments, in addition to working beautifully together as a group, including two of Fondakowski’s co-authors who take the stage (Greg Pierotti and Margo Hall), but a few in the ensemble merit special mention.

Colman Domingo disappears into his characters so completely, there were times he was unrecognizable to me as the same actor. The psychological distance between the personalities of two of his roles is enormous - on the one end of the spectrum is Jim Jones, Jr. (the preacher’s extremely charismatic adopted African American son) and on the other Eugene Smith (a young member of the Temple who joined at his mother’s urging, then fell in love and finally suffered a tragic loss as so many did). His comical turn as the eternally grinning politician Willie Brown also provides the night with some welcome levity. The man is a chameleon.

John McAdams as Stephan Jones, Jim Jones’ biological son, and as the Rev. Jim Jones himself, is by turns sad and inspiring and terrifying.

Mike Hartman takes on the role of a crusty (and very amusing) reporter on the trail of the Temple’s dirty laundry, the doomed Congressman Leo J. Ryan, and the Rev. John Moore, who lost two of his daughters and a grandchild in the mass suicide.

Regina Marie Williams is probably getting tired of always hearing how beautiful her singing voice is, but here it is, on glorious display yet again.

The production as a whole is peppered with music - both popular tunes from the time period and uplifting religious hymns full of energy.

Not everyone will come into the theater or leave it with the same experience. Many in the audience were adults when the Jonestown incident took place and have clear memories of it. Some of us were only children - while we don’t have the whole picture, we know enough to come in expecting the tragic ending from the start. Others weren’t even born yet - for them it is a living and powerful history lesson of sorts - the best kind of history, alive and fully human. Like the theater of the ancient Greeks, who frequently walked into the theater knowing the story, it isn’t so much the suspense of not knowing the end as it is the journey - how did these bright people end up in that dark place, and how do the survivors go on?

One character, just before the end, says that where there is life, there’s hope. Perhaps it is that small consolation which offers, if not a happy ending, a light in the darkness.

One of Jones’ favorite phrases went along the lines of “Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.” “The People’s Temple” is here to make sure we don’t forget.

Highly recommended.

“The People’s Temple” is about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, dealing with the pressures of life and death and the divisive issues of religion and race. There is some adult language, and liberal use of what is politely referred to these days as “the N word,” but don’t let that put you off. The rewards of the production compensate for any momentary discomfort with language.

Performances of “The People’s Temple” continue at the Guthrie mainstage at 725 Vineland Place in Minneapolisfrom opening night on Friday, January 13th (Friday the 13th, I know, I know) through Sunday, February 5th. Performances are every night of the week but Monday, with Saturday and some Sunday and Wednesday matinees as well. Take advantage of last minute rush line tickets for $15 when they’re available. The production looks good from all angles in the house. For reservations and further information on showtimes, call 612-377-2224 or (toll-free) 1-877-44STAGE or visit www.guthrietheater.org