urinetown year?

[angelrock25222]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 2:13am

what year would you say urientown takes place in? i havent been able to find an exact setting for the show. if i were to gamble id say the 30s, but i just was wondering if anyone actually knew and if not, what their opinions were.

thanks

[apdarcey]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 2:14am

1962

[angelrock25222]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 2:18am

not that im refuting your answer but why do you say that?

[apdarcey]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 2:23am

um, well in reality i think it's pretty timeless, because the whole show is a metaphor. i think it could work equally well in the early 1900's and in the 21st century. it's very satirical and not grounded in a specific period.

[angelrock25222]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 2:31am

i agree that it is timeless, but i was asking because say for costuming and set design, a time period is very helpful. while the show would work in all ages, the production itself, the way it was done on broadway and on tour, the set and costumes were very...old fashioned. if it were set it in the 70s or 2050 the design would have been different. so basically, i was just asking to see if anyone knew an actual decade they based it on.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 2:44am

I think apdarcey is right that in terms of just the text, there is no specific time period stated. It struck me when I saw the off-Broadway and Broadway production that the look of the costume design was 1930s Depression era (very appropriate for the story), not to mention that the score was somewhat reminiscent at times of the Brecht-Weill-Blitzstein collaborations of that period.

I imagine that the set/costume designer of another production could settle on a very different period than the 30s -- something futuristic even -- and the text would support that vision.

[apdarcey]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 2:48am

yeah. my 1962 didn't mean anything. it was just an example that the story could be set in any time and the show would still hold up. yes, the broadway production's design was very depression era-esque... but that doesn't mean your design has to be! come up with your own vision. or don't even make it set in a time. make it hard for the audience to pin it down, that makes the themes even more universal, if they can relate to the ideas without knowing the era.

[angelrock25222]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 3:06am

oh i totally agree it could work in any time! but the consensus on the depression era is more what i was looking for just because someone had asked me about the period and i really couldnt give them a factual answer, but i definitely agree with both of you and i appreciate the input very much!

[BwayBoy25]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 4:01am

all hail apdarcey and margo!

[Pinguin]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 4:40am

Urinetown is not a real place, so the nice thing is that you don't really have to be historical. It's probably good to use depression-like clothing, but you're certainly not confined to it, you just have to tell the story that the people are poor and oppressed in their costumes. Designing the show would be a fun task!

[Jon]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 5:12am

I alsways thought of URINETOWN as being set in a sort of a bleak post-apocalyptic future - like the Mad Max movies, except water is the precious commodity, rather than gasoline.

It can't realistically be set int he 1930's, since they refer to "faxing and photocopying".
Updated On: 7/9/05 at 05:12 AM

[magruder]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 9:56am

Jon and Margo are both right. It's set in a post-apocalyptic world, but with a 30s depression look.

[LittleFish8386]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 10:10am

Right, I am almost positive this fact has been stated somewhere by the authors. Updated On: 7/9/05 at 10:10 AM

[EdmundOG]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 11:22am

I'm gonna guess... 2185.