Extra Zero

Everyday life in a clinic for people with eating disorders: weight check, eating check, therapy session, eating check, evening activities and then the same thing all over again the next day. Not until the patient’s weight meets the institution’s strict targets can the patient be discharged and allowed to live in freedom again. The fact that this daily routine – which is strictly monitored at all times – also entails the loss of privacy and autonomy is something the patients just have to accept, since the end justifies the means. All too often, patients take their frustration and desperation out on themselves, because the authorities monitoring them are too powerful for one ill person to stand up to. The patients’ lives are already dominated by bitter struggles: against their own bodies, against other people’s bodies, against the ideals they are bombarded with by the outside world. Even more confusing is the new trend for self-love and body positivity, the fixation on healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle, which is putting even more pressure on people to ‹optimize› their lives. How are we to break out of this vicious cycle?

In Extra Zero, a radical choir of eating disorder sufferers fight back against disciplinarian institutions, against the torture of constant repetition and against the fear of the emptiness that a life without compulsion might bring. In this angry, powerful play full of black humour, Elisabeth Pape addresses the complexity of eating disorders and paints a frank and uncompromising picture of the hard road to recovery and self-acceptance.