The other day, my friend and I were talking about social events that serve as a cultural backdrop for our lives.  In theatre, a backdrop is the scenery on stage.  In this instance, I’m referring to cultural backdrop, which represents a major historical event that happens at the time the story takes place.  It can be used to enhance or contrast the story you tell.

Backdrop isn’t the same as setting.  Setting is the time and place in which a story takes place.  You can set your story during the Toronto G20 riots, but then your story will be about the riots.  Backdrop can enhance setting and affect your characters, but it’s not what your story is about.  It’s further in the distance than that.

This past weekend in Toronto we had the G20 and there were riots in the streets and in Toronto it’s a historical moment.  If you set your story amid the riots where your characters are protesters or cops, that’s using it as a setting.  If you have a story where your couple is aware of the riots but not participating and the riots are merely used to either enhance or contrast your story, that’s using it as a cultural backdrop.  Do you see the difference?

Mad Men for example uses the 1960s as its setting, but there are several life-changing events that happened at that time, which are mentioned in the odd episode, which not only serve to lend a dose of reality to the series, but also enhance the overall theme of the show.  Marilyn Monroe’s death, the American Airlines Flight 1, and the report that smoking causes cancer are examples of events that pop up throughout the series, affecting the characters for a moment then fading into the background.  Each are used as an event that propels plot or sets the theme for the episode, but the episode isn’t about that event.

The episode about Marilyn’s death serves to highlight how everyone is ‘hiding in plain sight’ as the elevator boy says at the beginning.  Betty Draper is depressed over her husband’s infidelity, but despite showing her misery to her friend, she says nothing about it.  Don Draper says nothing about his marriage yet his boss and his secretary are aware of his situation.  Roger Sterling is having an affair with Don’s secretary but says nothing until he tells his wife.  A Senior Account Exec with an alcohol problem Freddie Rumsen pisses his pants at the office then passes out at his desk and everyone finds out.  Everyone living with their secrets is miserable like Marilyn.  It’s only when the truth comes out are they relieved of their misery to some degree.

My cultural backdrop happens to be Princess Diana.  I don’t know why Princess Diana’s life means something to me; I never met Princess Diana, I didn’t know her or her family, but the fact that her life is constantly making appearances in mine could serve as a suitable backdrop depending on the story I tell.

I was born in Northampton, England, which is where Princess Diana grew up.  Her family home is in Althorp, which is just outside of Northampton.  My father used to drink at the pub where he occasionally ran into her brother Charles.  When I was eight, I sat in my grandmother’s living room begging my parents to take me to London for her Royal Wedding.  I watched it on TV instead.  When I was fifteen, I visited Althorp House and met her father and step mother.  And, at twenty-four, barely a month after I moved to London, Princess Diana was killed and I attended her funeral with a million others in Hyde Park.

What cultural backdrop could you use to enhance your story?  It could be a celebrity, a murderer, an iconic car, a war, a cultural movement etc..  How does it affect your story and your characters?  Can you use it to enhance or contrast your theme?  Not all stories need a backdrop so don’t force it if it’s not working.