whisper house
A score for four guests and one empty house.
What is whisper house?
whisper house is a score for four performers, called Guests, in an empty house. Their quiet domestic actions form a household vigil around someone or something left unspecified. The score can be read as a visual-musical text, performed, or encountered through an audio or video recording.
Some instructions describe surreal, impossible, or invisible actions. Performers may omit these actions, enact them symbolically, or imagine the feelings and gestures they suggest.
Performance notes
The four performers are designated Guests 1–4 in the score.
- Guest 4 acts only at the end.
- Guest 1 begins with a phone or laptop.
- Guest 3 begins with an encyclopedia.
- Unspecified details are left to the performers' interpretation.
Location: A performance requires a house with at least one room that has a door and a doorknob.
Materials
Books and paper
- Encyclopedia (Guest 3)
- Dictionary and novel
- Envelope
Kitchen and dining
- Frying pan and egg
- Pitcher, water, glasses, and plates
- Cutlery (forks, spoons, and knives)
- Vegetables and spices
Household and personal items
- Phone or laptop (Guest 1), and landline phone
- Radio and electric fan
- Laundry basket, basin, and clothes
- Broom, shell, and medicine or pills
- Tsinelas (slippers) and toothbrush
Audience
The performers may be their own audience. Other listeners or viewers may be anywhere in the house, separate from the performers, or encounter the work through a video recording.
Program notes
Concept
In whisper house, people continue their household activities while repeatedly checking on someone or something fragile. They move quietly to avoid disturbing whoever or whatever is being cared for.
I draw this situation from four experiences of care in my family: the deaths of our cats, my childhood illnesses, my grandfather's illness, and my younger siblings' infancy.
Our cats. Four of my family's cats had feline immunodeficiency virus. Their health declined over months or years, with periods of recovery that made it difficult to decide when to call for euthanasia. In each cat's final weeks, my family of four kept the cat in one room to monitor changes and took turns looking in. I did not want to disturb an animal that was already suffering. Checking one at a time seemed less overwhelming for the cat. At night, my family hoped the cat could hold on until the vet could make a house call in the morning, avoiding the distress of transport. The four cats died roughly a year apart during the pandemic.
Childhood illness. When I was sick as a child, people came in and out of my room, speaking softly and attending to me while keeping the household running. Lying in bed with a fever, I heard ironing, food frying, doors and windows opening and closing, and footsteps elsewhere in the house. These sounds connected me to activities I could not see. I later wondered whether my cats heard the household in a similar way while they were dying.
My grandfather. When I was young, my grandfather had cardiovascular problems and strokes that required repeated hospital stays. At home, house helpers, my parents, or my aunt slept in his room to respond if something happened at night. Someone also stayed with him in the hospital. I visited at least once a week for two years until he died. Sometimes I sat with him in the hospital room without speaking.
My younger siblings. My siblings are much younger than I am. When they were infants, they slept in a cradle in a quiet room. During their afternoon naps, members of the household took turns looking in on them while continuing their chores. I entered quietly to retrieve something or to check on them. The need to attend without disturbing them recalled the vigils around illness and dying.
I leave the fragile presence unspecified so that the vigil can be read through any of these experiences of care.
The soundscape can be approached from the position of the fragile presence or from that of a caretaker. During these vigils, I looked for small activities that gave me something to do without demanding my full attention. They helped me avoid dwelling on the situation while remaining ready to respond. The Guests' household activities follow this pattern of keeping occupied while attending to something else.
Open questions
The score leaves the identities of the Guests, the house, and the presence receiving care open to interpretation.