- guardian.co.uk, Monday May 15 2000 00.57 BST
The project will launch later this month with a re-enactment of one of Jones's political and religious sermons from the mid-1970s, including a reconstruction of a "miracle healing" that was alleged to have taken place during the sermons.
The centrepiece will be a day-long event in July, when other elements of life under Jones will be reconstructed. The day will conclude with "White Nights", a re-enactment of the last few hours of the people's temple, culminating in the suicide and death scene at Jonestown.
Vivienne Gaskin, the ICA's director of live arts, said the aim was to demonstrate the power of cults and why people are attracted to them. "A significant part of the power of cults is their theatricality, where people are drawn in through theatrical means. The aim is to examine their power over ordinary people, and to show that the paths that lead to these extremes are not as far away from rational thinking as you might imagine."
Philip Dodd, director of the ICA, said yesterday: "From Uganda to the new right in America this is a very resonant subject. The reason I said we should do it was because this type of evangelical material is terribly powerful at the moment, and it is not going to go away."
But Ayman Akshar, director of the anti-cult campaigners, Triumph over London Cults, said: "I think on principle it is distasteful and disturbing to do something that glamorises or sanitises the image of someone who caused the death of so many. People do get attracted to join cults after seeing such images in films or in public displays."
The re-enactments are being created by Rob Dickinson, whose work has been widely exhibited in contemporary art galleries, but who is most famous for covertly creating crop circles.
The ICA is seeking a £7,000 grant from the London Arts Board for the re-enactment, which will involve several hundred participants, both professional actors and volunteers, who are being recruited through the internet and adverts in the Fortean Times.
