Pelvis forward. Back straight. Barbell to hips. Lower down. Repeat. Don’t cry. Pain is just weakness leaving the body! Three sets of eight repetitions. Calories burned 168 kcal, weight loss 23g. These, you wimp, are deadlifts. Life is a gym: this is not a place to play. This is work. The will subdues the body, this lazy dog. The mind (coloratura soprano) controls the body (bass) and the latter is supposed to become fit, desirable, immortal. Because with the right management, death itself can be cheated. For sure. …for sure…

Body Work is a music-theatrical workout by Laura Winkler, freely adapted from a libretto by Amy Stebbins (at the NKO SCHÖNER WOHNEN), for two singers and two percussionists and runs away from the only certainty of our lives in a ludicrous, accelerating music-theatrical circuit training. Death, a running gag…