Fuddy Meers's playwright, David Lindsay-Abaire, does not provide us with a time and place to set his play. There are a few clues that we are given, but only one strong enough to give us a region of the nation to start with. The reference to Friendly's (a restaurant) lets us research the region due to the fact that we do not have them here so they have to be specific to another area of the country. Using the playwright's home town of Boston Massachusetts made all too much sense (the first Friendly's was in Massachusetts). On top of that, Boston Massachusetts fits other requirements set forth by the script. For instance the urban atmosphere. Most smaller towns and suburbs of cites don't have a public transit bus system the way that Larger metropolitan areas do. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is the public transit for the entire Massachusetts bay area that is considered the metro area of Boston Massachusetts. Also, a short distance away from Boston MA is a county (Norfolk) that hosts quite a few of Massachusetts's state funded prison facilities. Furthermore, the Massachusetts State Police and the Massachusetts Department of Corrections have uniforms that are incredibly alike. They are alike enough for Heidi to steal a guard's uniform from the laundry at the prison that she works in and helps Limping man and Millet escape from.
Then what about Gertie's house? We are only told that it is in the country. The clues to where in the country, is in the Piermont fair reference. Within a short drive from Boston Massachusetts (around two hours) there is a small town of just over 700 citizens in New Hampshire called Piermont. Along the way, taking the interstate route, there is both a Friendly's and a JC Penny's both of which are referenced in the script as being on the way to Gertie's house. What about the fair itself? I found nothing on a particular fair in Piermont, however there are several traveling fairs/ carnivals in the New England area that have been around long enough to have been the Piermont fair. Piermont could have hired one of them for its country fair. Being as small of a town as it is they may not have the notoriety of say the Texas State Fair.
In the notes on setting at the beginning of the script, it says modern day is the time frame. What does this mean? Today's climate is drastically different from even just a few years ago. So how do we determine the time that Fuddy Meers is set in? Lindsay-Abaire wrote this script while attending Juilliard in the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. It was first workshopped there at Juilliard in 1998. The show was first done at the Manhattan Theatre Club in late 1999, but the first commercial run of Fuddy Meers was in early January of 2000 at the Minetta Lane Theatre. Using the year 2000 for the setting, while not definitive, works quite well. Why? There are a few cultural references that make plenty of sense in the year 2000. Rodney King is referenced. The incident involving Rodney King occurred in the year 1991 and caused catastrophic riots in Los Angeles California and smaller riots in Las Vegas Nevada and Atlanta Georgia in the year 1992. setting it too close to these events would mean that it was too soon after their fall out and 'not funny yet', too far after, not funny anymore. There was a peek in both domestic violence and violent crime in the late 90s (which, assuming the current action takes place in 2000, would be when the play's historical action leading up to the current action would have been). Also with the play set in 2000 the No Child Left Behind act would not be in effect. Without the NCLB act the school's around the county would have had higher standards and expectations (due to not being punished for underachievement with in said standards/ expectations and/ or goals) making it easier to believe Kenny as a 17 year old eighth grader.
Ultimately Fuddy Meers can be set in any time frame after it was written. The play isn't about a time and a place (even though some of the regional and cultural references point us in the right direction) Fuddy Meers is about the comedy of forgetfulness and how the events in our lives shape us and even those around us too.
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