Work Song, video of the musical's opening night at Teatro Valle Occupato, Rome, 2014

The main issue of the piece is the unemployment in Italy, the content of the primary textbook and the lyrics of the songs are based on interviews and research in the region of Rome. The musical divided in three parts can be considered experimental in the sense that it is a self-reflective performance querying theatre as an expressive form and also the genre of musical itself.

In other words it is an avant-garde show based on reality. Beyond its self-reflective nature, in terms of form, it is an amalgam of genres, a process-based piece comprised of the formal elements of visual arts, music, theatre, and formal elements of a demonstration or a psychodrama. The piece itself is made up of improvisations developed during rehearsals, constructed on a basic framework comprising a schematic narrative and instructions.

The single essential story of the piece unfolds in the scope of a psychodrama from the future in 2032, by evoking the childhood trauma of the protagonist, which happened in 2013. The recollected tragedy is thus a current story, and is based in actual events: the circumstances of the suicide of a man in his final desperation at having become unemployed. The story is delivered from the point of view of the deceased family man’s niece, from a distance of 19 years.

The lyrics of the musical’s fundamental composition are written in two versions with opposite meanings entitled Work Song and Absolution. At the opening the last act of the musical - Absolution and Epilogue – was performed live: a band rehearsal on stage, during which the lyrics of the song Absolution are transcribed into the lyrics of Work Song.