Theatre 2025: Octet @ Crow's Theatre

Almost right from the start when listening to the songs in the musical Octet, it is quite apparent that Dave Malloy, the composer/lyrist of this musical, was also behind the 2016 Broadway hit Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, as well as the 2015 Off-Broadway musical Ghost Quartet.  All three shows share Malloy’s distinctive compositional style and have a similar sound to them.  His songs are often written in the minor key with dissonant notes and chord progressions, off-beat timings, complex harmonies and haunting melodies that have an operatic or chamber music feel, as well as wide vocal ranges that have strong emotional and narrative arcs.

Although the three musicals have vastly different plots and themes, they each have an air of mysticism and spirituality to them, since this seems to be a fascination of Malloy’s. In the song cycle Ghost Quartet, this was obvious both from the title and the eerie tales that each of four storytellers spin about life, death, magic, reincarnation, revenge and more.  In Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, which is based on a small section of the novel War and Peace, the mysticism comes from the eponymous comet.  Usually seen as a cosmic omen of untold horrors including war or the end of the world, Pierre saw it as a spiritual awakening and sign of hope for a new beginning. 

Octet is Dave Malloy’s most recent musical which opened off-Broadway in May 2019.  Compared to the other two, this is his most contemporary work in terms of timeframe, setting and theme.  It deals with eight technology-obsessed people who have convened at a self-help group meeting for Internet addicts.  In Octet’s original staging in New York, Malloy linked each song and character to one of the cards in a Major Arcana tarot deck, using the symbolism of the cards to reflect each person’s addiction and struggles.  By adding an element of the occult, he wanted to contrast “the coldness of technology with a hope for spiritual awakening and human connection”.  To that end, the off-Broadway production used the tarot card of “The Fool” modified to hold a mobile phone on the front of its programme cover and listed the pairings of cards to characters in an insert.  There were also explicit references within the dialogue.

The Toronto production at Crow's Theatre made an artistic decision to downplay the tarot card connection, choosing to concentrate more on the emotional themes rather than spiritual elements.  While references in the songs and dialog to tarot cards remained either explicitly (“I am the Magician”, “You are the Hanged Man”, “The Tower Tea Ceremony”) or through imagery and symbolism (The Moon, The Lovers, The Devil, The World), the programme and set design did not directly reinforce these connections.  Instead, to pay tribute to Malloy’s intentions without layering them into the production, prior to several Tuesday performances free Tarot Card Readings are offered in the lobby two hours before the start of the show.  A few minutes prior to the start of the show, Paula, the leader of the group, sat at a table dealing out tarot cards but these were put away once the musical began.  Electronic screens lined the walls of the theatre and their images changed with each scene, not quite displaying the images of tarot cards but pixelated representations of elements like the Sun, Moon or Hearts (love).  I wholeheartedly agree with this choice, since the main subject matter about various Internet addictions and the lyrics describing them were complex enough on their own without having to deal with understanding the tarot references as well!

Octet is an acapella chamber choir musical where all the songs are sung without instrumental accompaniment.  The self-help group uses the singing of hymns and personal confessionals as part of their “step-program” to confront and deal with their obsessions.  In the group songs where the cast all sing together, their voices blend beautifully with all the vocal ranges represented from soprano to bass.  For the solo numbers, the various voices of the other cast members set the tempo and provide harmonic accompaniment for each lead singer.  Each song begins with the playing of a pitch pipe, which provides a clear, precise starting note to allow the singers to tune their voices for that song.

The meeting starts with a soothing group hymn titled “The Forest” which describes a metaphorical safe space where they can digitally detox and try to escape from “the Monster”, which is the Internet.  The song ends with “I have screensaver-ed the forest, to remind me there are places that the Monster doesn’t go.” Then Paula asks for volunteers to give testimonials about their addiction and how it is impacting their lives and each of them begin with the typical statement “I am an addict”.  The songs start by addressing more common addictions that are easily relatable but eventually get weirder and weirder.

Jessica has a viral video online of herself acting horribly and has been publicly shamed and “canceled”.  Yet she cannot resist obsessively googling herself or as she terms it “ego-surfing” almost as a punishment for her bad behaviour.  Her song is called “Refresh” which has a double meaning as she sings of going to the Forest with no reception so as to refresh, but the chanting chorus singing “Refresh” also refers to her continued search for posts about herself.

Henry is addicted to playing online games including “candy-themed games” in a veiled reference to the popular 3-D puzzle video game “Candy Crush”.  He plays so often that he isolates himself and gets so obsessed that he stops taking care of personal hygiene and stops taking his medication.  Using “Candy” as a metaphor for his gaming obsession, he talks about tooth decay and rotting his teeth as a symbol or the rotting of his brain.  It is interesting that “candy” is a slang for drugs such as cocaine since Henry sings with such fervour that it feels like a drug addiction.  For the choreography of his song, the electronic floor on the stage lights up and becomes a gaming video screen.

Paula sings "Glow" about her husband’s obsession with nighttime scrolling on his cellphone in bed with the “lighting up the sheets with … the sallow blue glow of a screen” and I abashedly thought “guilty”!  Karly and Ed are each lonely souls addicted to dating apps and porn apps. Ironically titled "Solo" but sung as a duet, they alternately provide counterpoint to each other’s experiences as they each crave physical interaction IRL.  Toby has gone down the rabbit hole of doomscrolling and conspiracy theories. Marvin is a scientist who is obsessed with scientific forums and needs to make rational sense of all occurrences.  He describes a surreal experience with a “Little God” who performs inexplicable miracles, highlighting the cost of excessive intellectualization.  I found this song the most difficult to understand and relate to.  Singing last, Velma who is new to the group sings “Beautiful” the only song that reminds us there are positive aspects of the Internet including allowing isolated, alienated people to make online connections.  Suffering from self-loathing and poor self-image, Velma learns to accept and like herself after meeting another girl across the sea who is just like her.  Sung in the middle of the show with a tribal beat, the song that best sums up the musical’s theme for me is “Monster” where the group metaphorically sings about the Internet monster - “As you watch the monster, it digs deeper in your brain. Transforming neural pathways with its toxic refrain”.

Octet is an innovative, challenging and intellectually stimulating show with an important message and warning.  It felt like we were immersed in an episode of Black Mirror.  The choice of singing all the songs acapella was also unique and memorable, but also fit into the theme of the show, using the purity of human voices to contrast against the disease of addiction to technology and the internet.

In the talkback session after the show, a question was asked about whether new technological advancements have been added to the show since its 2019 inception.  The answer was that some changes were proposed but they mostly referred to isolation felt during COVID lockdowns and how the Internet was sometimes the only available source of connection. The advance of AI has not been addressed but maybe would be something to consider for the future versions?  There was also much discussion about how difficult it was to sing without an orchestra or conductor and how the cast was responsible for keeping each other in tune and on beat, especially with the difficult, unsyncopated timings of some of the songs.