Henry House

A micro-opera for the common human being. A shadow figure makes his way through a frigid landscape, reflecting on a life that made no mark. Henry House is an expression of a kind of American “everyone,” with all of their faults and false footing, their moments of success and regret. The work features a cento text based on heavily manipulated phrases from Reiner Stach’s Kafka biography and John Berryman’s Dream Songs. The texts were stitched together and compulsively rewritten by Nate Wooley in order to create a loose and billowing character, Henry House, whose life is eulogized by an unknown narrator. The work for this film stemmed from studies for a larger cycle of Henry House songs released on January 16th on Ideologic Organ, but Jen Mesch has found a new dimension to the House songs by putting the composer’s body in space and time. Whether he is the narrator or the eponymous House, we are never quite sure.