Hip Shot: ‘Immoral Combat’
Immoral Combat: A Satire on the News Business
Warehouse – Mainstage
Remaining Performances:
Saturday 7/18 at 11:30 pm, Sunday 7/19 at 7 pm, and Sunday 7/26 at 4:15 pm.
They say: “A satire on the news business, is set in the Worldwide Broadcasting newsroom, where people in charge come and go. As the news ebbs and flows, the play highlights the crises in their lives.”
Caroline’s take: Yes, it’s a satire on the news business, but it’s more of a satire of workplaces in general. Whatever happens in this newsroom could happen anywhere else in the world. The group of characters spend the seventy minutes struggling to report the news, proving that regardless of the final product, not all news organizations run like well-oiled machines.
The play starts with a typical day at Worldwide Broadcasting, a government-run radio network. Larry, the chief editor, simplifies his problems by delegating all tasks to Elizabeth, the assistant editor. Two of the staff writers are too concerned with their own interests to contribute to the broadcast, and the only person invested in getting the news out is Mary, the ambitious young reporter who happens to be sleeping with Larry. After seeing the results of one broadcast, it becomes clear that covering the news is nobody’s strong suit, so the emphasis switches to the pitiful personal lives of the characters.
Whenever the characters sit down at the table opposite the newsroom set, they reveal some somber fact about their lives and plead with each other for better opportunities. Alene, an older copy clerk and aspiring writer, sits down with Elizabeth to announce that she plans to sue Larry and the company for age and sex discrimination and asks Elizabeth to testify on her behalf. As soon as she reveals her motives, both women strike a suddenly depressing note when they discuss what brought them to Worldwide Broadcasting in the first place. For Alene, becoming a writer was her first step to becoming independent after leaving her abusive husband. For Elizabeth, working her way up the masthead was a way of coping with the death of her child. Their messages are powerful, but the hectic pace of the newsroom swallows their emotions.
As the play drags on, editors come and go, eager to chase their next opportunity, and yet nothing changes. The action is static, and even as the writers rush to cover press conferences, nothing happens that affects anyone for the better or worse. Each day is the same as the one before and after a while, even the news begins to repeat. Scenes in the play blend into one another and it’s difficult to determine why the characters are so concerned about everything. By the time the lights go down, the characters discuss closure—something the audience isn’t getting, either.
See it if: You don’t know a lot about the news business and enjoy behind-the-scenes drama more than what is happening to begin with.
Skip it if: You want to see something out of the ordinary or want to see a show with some sort of central plot.
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1:47 pm
actually, the city paper is itself, a more successful satire of the news than anything you are likely to find @ the fringe so.. thank you for leading by example.
-and publishing theatrical reviews by 20 yo college students… that’s comic genius. somebody should work that into a show for next year!!
2:54 pm
e,
Bitterness is no substitute for wit.
Also, it seems you’re missing the point of the blog: to feature a nice, heterogeneous set of voices, from talented young writers like Caroline Jones to our slightly more grizzled F&P veterans.
(Which variety, come to think of it, is sort of the point of Fringe.)
Caroline was not terribly cantankerous in her review, e; just cool it with the Haterade, if ye please.
7:37 pm
wit? you mean like the wit you guys exhibited with your headlines about marion barry “getting his dick sucked” last week?
see if you’ll re-read my post, you’ll notice that i wasn’t criticising caroline’s review as much as i was the general lack of professionalism and journalistic integrity exhibited by the city paper- and since you’re her editor, that’s really more about you.
and since, the continuing decline of journalistic standards is one of the themes of this show i find it beyond absurd that you’ve published a review of it, by someone who is completely unqualified to offer an informed opinion to anyone outside of myspace- in order to what?? provide a “nice, heterogeneous set of voices”-
so, what’s next middle-schoolers critiquing exhibits at the hirshorn?
the fringe has been a great experience so far, and the work of its participants shouldn’t be subject to unprofessional critiques simply because you can’t find enough qualified interns to cover for you.
9:41 pm
e,
I’m sorry you didn’t like our review of your show. Thanks for your comments, and please keep reading F&P.
1:13 pm
[...] Immoral Combat [...]
4:13 pm
And back to the show–Maybe because I am a female veteran of embattled workplaces, I took away a lot more from this show. The hook here is the fun in facing the sadly familiar set to humor in this slice of office life where employees look for meaning and purpose in their frustrating lives. I could even enjoy the escapism when employees appear to prevail ostensibly, if perhaps not existentially, as the protagonist continued to ponder her life and work even as the tide turned in her favor. And precisely what each quirky character cared about made all the difference between them and how they related to each other. The theme really seems to progress around women on the rise in the workplace but also invites questions about ultimate fulfillment or as Bob Woodward might say, the failure of success. Also, a point of journalistic interest emerges when the story reveals some staff don’t only report news for the government, but affect the news through undercover activities. They fight over very current controversial events.