Inspired by the numerology of Alcoholics Anonymous’ Twelve Steps, Octet chooses 8 as its holy number. The title directly references both the number of characters and the term for a musical ensemble of eight, which also connects to the show's a cappella style; the eight performers use only their voices, and sometimes light percussion, to create their sound without an external orchestra. The characters also repeatedly refer to bits and bytes in their discussions. A bit, or binary digit, is the smallest unit of digital information. A byte is made up of eight bits, much like the assembled octet of characters.
The number 8 echoes throughout the piece: The Eight Principles, the eight members of the group, and multiple references to the infinity symbol (a sideways 8). The Rider-Waite tarot deck is central to the structure of the story, and the infinity symbol appears throughout the deck. Characters repeatedly reference their struggles with the “infinite scroll” of social media. The song “Little God” uses infinity as a concept to explore the capability of the soul, as well as our incapability of experiencing wonder in the age of the internet. The God Chorus says, “Soul is a matterless, infinite substance that exists outside of time and is constantly separating and reforming,” which echoes Malloy’s investigation of the human capacity for healing and becoming.
However, the infinite nature of the internet is positioned as the very thing that holds us back from that kind of self-connection: “We beheld an infinity of wonders—and yet we sat at our desks in stoic calculation, stripped of awe, paralyzed by the unforgiving relentlessness of our intellect,” as a character sings in “Little God.” Octet explores eight examples of internet addiction, and the underlying experience of yearning for genuine connection with others. According to the script, “There’s Recreational, Financial, Social, Sexual, and Informational [addictions]. But they all bleed into each other.”
Octet illuminates both the dangers of the internet’s infinite reach and the infinite possibility of human connection when we escape from our digital dungeon. The support group in Octet have Eight Principles for their recovery, principles that reflect this capacity for isolation and connection:
There is a deep emptiness.
When deep emptiness is covered with dispassionate noise, healing is blocked.
Creation and consumption are inversely proportional.
Content is not connection is not consensus is not contentment.
The brain is plastic and chemical; repetitive stimulus creates quantifiable changes to its makeup. When the brain is trained to favor rapid, shallow, multi-tasked thinking, this stunts its ability to connect, focus, create, and feel.
Fantasy takes many forms.
Anxiety with others starts with anxiety with the self.
Every second I am unaware of time is a second that I am giving over to death.
Another core rule that the group follows: Don’t name the Monster (internet/game/platform/etc). “We dare not speak the Monster’s true names. So silly, so childish, so ticklish to the touch, to sing their names would make a song seem trite. We’re embarrassed to admit that the Monster might mean so much.” United by their Principles, and supported sonically by their octet, each character shares how the infinite pockets of the internet have altered their life: the one thing they are aware is not infinite at all. There is an awareness that this is a Monster the world cannot defeat, but their very presence with each other is an attempt to reclaim the remainder of their time.
—Michelle Marie Lynch