Reviews

"Ambitious newshounds jockey for power, have inappropriate sex in the workplace and file sex discrimination lawsuits in Rachael Bail's "Immoral Combat", set in a radio network newsroom.  Bail herself had a long career as a reporter in print and broadcasting here and abroad.... Of changes in the news biz, she says: 'There are always people who are trying to get you to do the news their way.... If you like it, fine. If you don't, you have two choices -- you either go along or you get out.  So I thought it would be interesting to show that nothing is perfect in the news business.' Adds Bail, 'Most people go into the news business because they want to express the truth .... and then they run into everything.'"

The Washington Post Backstage
Jane Horwitz
July 1, 2009

"The play ("Immoral Combat") overall is entertaining, with all its characters, plots and subplots, and especially for Washington audiences who love the media and the politics it covers."

DC THEATRE SCENE
Marcia Kirtland
July 13, 2009

Photo credit: © 2009 Jeff Malet and Paul Gillis Photography

"Journalist-turned playwright Rachael Bail departs from her .... tenure at....Voice of America to poke fun at media, politics and more in a McLean Drama company stage show ("Immoral Combat")  that hit the Capital Fringe Festival.... As the plot of "Immoral Combat" unravels, the audience gets a behind-the-scenes look at the news business rarely witnessed by the lay consumer. "Immoral Combat" presents a work environment prone to chaos with broken printers, sexual discrimination and love affairs, to name only a few issues which intensify an already-hectic work atmosphere."

Falls Church News-Press
Andrew Sailer
July 1, 2009

"The Alden Theatre at the McLean Community Center (has welcomed) back the McLean Drama Company... for its annual production.  This year's play ... is an original piece by longtime journalist Rachael Bail...'The premise of this play is about what happens in a newsroom,' Bail said.  'The characters are trying to get the news out and people's political ideas and backgrounds come around and interfere with, or improve the news...'I think it's important for people to know that they should look at the news very carefully and critically. and then they will be able to make their own judgments about what is actually happening,' Bail said."

McLean Connection
Abigail Albright
June 10, 2009

"... Rachael Bail is standing the concept of 'til death do us part on its head. Her latest play "Thousands of Years -- Rome" at the Alden Theatre, staged by the McLean Drama Company... focuses on a pair of lovers who ... live their love again and again over two milleniums... The effect war has on love is explored repeatedly..."

The Washington Post
Michael J. Toscano
June 26, 2008

"The McLean Drama Company is celebrating its fifth anniversary .... performing its new play, "Thousands of Years -- Rome" at the Alden Theatre... Rachael Bail, founder of the Drama Company, and writer of the play found inspiration while on a trip to Rome. (She says she) "looked down over the Roman Forum and the play ... came to me."

McLean Connection
Matthew Swift
June 25, 2008

"Thousands of Years -- Rome" by McLean resident Rachael Bail (at the Alden Theatre) is a love story that follows a couple, Octavia and Mario, over the course of 2,000 years as they live, die and live again in various roles throughout history."

The Fairfax County Times
Monty Tayloe
June 25, 2008