Octet is a story of mind-boggling multitudes, exploring how the internet, as a constantly expanding space, has irrevocably altered our world in both positive and negative ways. Creator Dave Malloy borrows from disparate traditions–both musically and narratively–to capture something of the expansiveness of the ways people interact with the internet. The main musical form, which shapes the piece and makes space for Malloy to weave in other inspirations, is chamber music. This form of classical music is often described as the “music of friends”–it is intimate, collaborative, and conversational. For more than a hundred years it has echoed through palaces and living rooms alike, and in Octet it brightens a meeting in a church basement.
This music of mutual care lends to the support group dynamic, but also celebrates the individual characters as if they were instruments in a chamber music ensemble. And yet, as an a cappella choir, the only instruments present are their voices. In an interview with Signature Theatre following the first production of this show, Dave Malloy shared: “[Octet] became a chamber choir musical because it felt like it wanted to be about these humans coming together and being really vulnerable with each other.” Each member’s voice is honored as an equal and integral part of the storytelling, which allows them to contribute unique sounds, references, and experiences. True to the intentionally offline nature of their support group, the choice of a cappella singing feels analog, with the characters supporting each other in every beat of the musical.
Malloy intentionally stayed away from pop culture a cappella examples that would immediately come to mind, such as Glee and Pitch Perfect, and instead drew inspiration from traditions such as Eastern European choir music, Gospel and Spiritual music, as well as Mongolian throat singing, Meredith Monk, and Toby Twining. There are surprise references in the music, such as the famous two notes from Jaws, and a lyrical reference to The Kinks. There’s even a Rick Roll, which is a bait-and-switch internet joke in which a person is duped into following a link to the music video for Rick Astley’s 1987 hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Octet’s sheer variety of sonic references feels calculated to both delight and engage its audience in a way that feels analogous to a Wikipedia rabbit hole. The play’s stories traverse time, context, and art alongside these characters as they attempt to articulate the experience of being chronically online.
Malloy loves to experiment with form narratively as well as sonically. Another tradition he engages with is the Pastoral. Originating in Greek and Roman Poetry, and continuing through time to inspire multiple art forms, Pastoral storytelling represents life in the countryside as delightfully free of society’s corruptions and struggles. Among the writers who have used the pastoral convention are Virgil, John Milton, and William Shakespeare. Pastoral stories often include singing matches between shepherds, which resemble the conversational nature of the songs in Octet.
Malloy begins the play with a direct Pastoral reference in the opening song “The Forest,” which uses the metaphor of a forest to describe life before the internet as beautiful, magical, and whimsical. “The Forest was beautiful. My head was clean and clear, alone without fear. The Forest was safe. I danced like a beautiful fool one time some time, the twilight moon smiling and winking, mist across my cheeks, murmuring magic whispering soft soothing green.” In the song Refresh, one character physically goes away to a forest to recover from her internet addiction.
While Malloy toys with the forest and society as physical places in the tradition of Pastoral stories, he ultimately presents them as mental spaces and neural pathways that need tending. Later on in the show, we see what happens when we don’t. In “Monster,” the forest is shown as polluted and dangerous because the internet has taken over their mindscape. “Like a litter covered trail in the forest, chip bags and beer cans, condoms, cigarettes. Every time you check, that’s what happens to your mind.” A reminder that this mental pollution is not inevitable, serves as one of the most resonant lines in the show: “I have screensavered the forest to remind me there are places the monster doesn’t go.”
Both musically and narratively, Malloy’s inspirations for this piece span more than 3,000 years of human memory. It’s a project crafted to expand in its possibilities as its characters work to put their experiences and insights into words. Octet is ancient, current, and futuristic – as infinite as the internet itself.
—Michelle Marie Lynch