THE 90's AND EARLY NOUGHTIES

THE...

Enron is set between 1989 (when Enron began trading natural gas) and mid 2006 (Ken Lays death) meaning that the majority of the story takes place in a time i wasn't alive to see. Although it's only a few years back on a timeline (and the youths of today still wear baggy clothes and dungarees) it was a completely different time with an entirely different social, political, historical climate.

FASHION

As briefly mentioned before, the 90's was the trademark era of bright colours, baggy clothes, and generally vibrant clothing however unfortunately this world doesn't stretch far beyond the fashion fads of middle age/elderly, middle class Texan business men.

As wonderfully modelled here by none other than Andy himself the 90's was an era of "ugly ties" and tight neck tie knots which seems to have bled into the decade from the 80's "Drape suit". The 90's suits and some of the suits seen in Enron are a mixture of this nostalgic style and a more modern suit fashion that you might see if you got the underground to canary wharf today. I find myself coming back to the fashion of ties as they i noticed that they are where businessmen probably express themselves the most in terms of suit fashion. A confident man might be likely to wear a bright red tie, a conforming or self conscious man might be more likely to wear a dull coloured tie but Fastow is something entirely different fitting into both and none of these two categories. I feel that he'd a wear a tie similar like this.

It somehow manages to be dull in it's grey tones yet stand out at the same time with the patterns. It screams, "my mum thinks it looks cool and she says i'm handsome", which i think is where i want to take this character.

Fastow is referenced as a "double breasted douchebag" by trader another trader in scene 5. This is another feature of the 80's/90's return of the 30's drape suit featuring wide lapels, wide ties and of course the double breasted buttons. I think although this was vaguely popular in the 90's this is where it began to grow "out of style" of course to the complete ignorance of Fastow who would probably either think it's still fashionable or take next to no notice at all.

POP CULTURE

~ Internet and the rise of the home computer ~

~ Crystal Pepsi ~

~ Budweiser Rehearsal ~

~ Friends ~

~ Microsoft ~

~ Terminator 2 ~

~ Millennium Hysteria ~

~ Nelson Mandela's Election ~

"little conflict" (ha, America)

Politics

(1993) - Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison became the first ever woman to serve as U.S. Senator from Texas and 

(1991) Dissolution of the soviet union - fall of communism/rise of capitalism?

(1993-2001) Bill Clinton is president of the United States 

Monica Lewinsky - Sex scandal - Parallels with Claudia?

(2000) - George W. Bush elected president

~

"Fastest growing economy there has ever been"

~

It is important that as well as capturing the world of the play and understanding the world of the play that we understand the time in which it was set and what was going on. My research here isn't as thorough as i would have liked but my pre-existing knowledge in addition to this gives me a rough idea of the landscape helping solidify my visualisation of Enron.