Behind The Curtain

History books can only tell us so much: the facts, the figures and the hard data of a time period. A fictional story like MAMMA MIA! can help us learn how people felt during a period of time.

MAMMA MIA! really takes place during TWO time periods: the present day and the era of the 1970s, when Donna met Sam, Harry and Bill and sang with “Donna and the Dominos.” The 1970s was a time of extraordinary change, a pivotal era in American and world history. Events of the decade changed how we saw our leaders, our place in the world, and ourselves. The war in Vietnam led to large scale protests and distrust in government and authority, which was only compounded by the allegations of corruption at the highest levels in the Watergate scandal. Inflation and high unemployment ravaged the economy, while an energy crisis caused long lines at the gas stations.

Many turned away from the government and looked to themselves for change. During the 1960s, environmentalists such as Rachel Carson had warned against the dangers of pollution; the 1970s saw the beginning of the environmental movement: a concentrated, public-driven desire to conserve and protect our world. With the fiftieth anniversary of Female Suffrage (the right to vote) in the United States, the 1970s also saw the growth of the feminist movement to gain equal rights for women in all parts of life. The proportion of women in state legislatures tripled during the 1970s, and by 1979, women surpassed men in college enrollment.

Along with social strides, the 1970s saw advances in science. The development of semiconductor silicon chips revolutionized the electronics industry; handheld calculators, digital watches, and video games like Pong and Pac Man became commonplace.

The nuclear family (a family unit consisting of one father, one mother, and children), which had been so strong during the 1940s and 1950s, began to lose its importance during the 1970s. Divorce rates were on the rise and women began to believe that they could raise children on their own.

Since World War II, the United States had been in the forefront of political, economic, and social history. Now we were losing ground, and there was a sense – a nameless fear – that something was going wrong. In the 1970s, we saw our limits.

But through it all, satirical television shows like “All in the Family” and “Saturday Night Live” made fun of these changes, never letting us take ourselves too seriously!

MAMMA MIA! Plays the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts June 7 - 12, 2011.