The Wilbury Theatre Group (WTG) presents Octet, a chamber choir musical written and composed by Dave Malloy, known for his genre-blending, emotionally charged work. Directed with precision by WTG artistic director Josh Short, Malloy’s hauntingly original new musical features richly layered harmonies and intricate vocal arrangements plus a comical, intimate, and deeply moving exploration of human connection in the digital age. Malloy’s script and score offer an aching honesty, drawing the audience into a shared space where vulnerability becomes a means of survival, and connection is both the problem and the solution. It’s a modern take on human isolation and the possibility of redemption set against the backdrop of our digitally dominated lives. But what happens when the internet isn’t enough?
Internet addicts gather in a support group called “Friends of Saul,” in a church basement room where they sit in a ring of chairs. Set designer Monica Shinn keeps the staging minimal, allowing the evocative music and sharp dialogue to lead. The octet share their stories, in a score for an a cappella chamber choir and an original libretto inspired by internet comment boards, scientific debates, religious texts, and Sufi poetry. Under the expert music direction of Milly Massey, the eight actors, each portraying a member of this unconventional support group, excel at balancing the technical demands of the score with the emotional depth of their characters.
Each character grapples with their individual tech-inflicted alienation. They are deeply flawed, and unambiguously human. The calmly resourceful leader of the group is portrayed by the exceptional Helena Tefuri. Each character seems trapped in a paradox — longing for connection, yet terrified of what true intimacy might demand of them — with none more anxious than Chelsea Aubert’s character. The other six navigating the complexities of their tech-saturated existence are deftly portrayed by Michael Yussef Greene, Alexander Boyle, Jason Quinn, Jenna Benzinger, Jason Cabral and Naomi Tyler. The ensemble’s voices blend seamlessly, underscoring the emotional turbulence of the group dynamic so incredibly well that their harmonizing alone is worth the admission.
“Beneath its exploration of algorithms and dark-web rabbit holes, behind the jokes about Candy Crush and the ache of online dating, we’ve found Octet to be a moving meditation on longing — the longing to be witnessed, to be understood, to be connected in a world that keeps pulling our attention elsewhere,” says Short. “Every day, we negotiate an overwhelming swirl of pings, alerts, headlines, feeds. We immerse ourselves in our screens, hoping to make sense of ourselves through the chaos. In workshops and rehearsals, our ensemble has been navigating these questions right alongside the score — listening, responding, harmonizing, leaning into the vulnerability that the music and this story demand. And through this, with his signature wit and grace, Dave Malloy asks us to reflect on what we’re sacrificing to the glow of our screens. But it also asks something gentler: What might happen if we slowed down long enough to hear our own voices inside the noise? To connect and listen to the struggles of the people sitting just a few feet away from us?”
As the play builds toward its cathartic climax, the characters are not only seeking a cure for their alienation, they’re searching for a way to reassert their humanity. The final somber moments of the production, delivered with haunting grace, serve as a warning as well as hope that, even in our most isolated moments, we are still capable of reaching out to each other.
Octet is a wonderfully executed exploration of modern life’s fractures that challenges, unsettles, and ultimately uplifts — the essential antidote to the noise and disconnection of our digital age. Short invites you to “settle into this experience the same way we did in the rehearsal room — with curiosity, openness, and the willingness to follow wherever the harmony leads. You may find yourself cracked open by a chord, startled by a confession, or unexpectedly moved by the simple reminder that we are all, in our own way, trying to reconnect.”
Wilbury presents Octet through December 21. For more information, visit thewilburygroup.org/index.html.