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MTYP’s The Last Tree of Rapa Nui (SUPPLIED PHOTO)

The Last Tree of Rapa Nui explores Easter Island (Rapa Nui) and the theory that it was the construction of its legendary statues called moai that led to extreme deforestation, environmental degradation and the extinction of a people.
   
Written by Governor General’s Literary Award-winning playwright Vern Thiessen and scored by daCapo Productions music producer Olaf Pyttlik, Manitoba Theatre for Young People’s new environmental musical aims to teach children and adults alike that there’s such thing as too much of a good thing.
   
"Every culture has traditions (it’s believed the moai represent deified ancestors), either religious or whatever, and they’re valuable and important and honourable — but every culture has that point where things went too far and they lost perspective," says Pyttlik, 43.
   
"That’s what our story is about, at what point do you lose perspective and at what point are your needs more important than the tradition you’re trying to convey? We’re not saying these statues were a mistake, but it is obvious that the people took it too far, which is a reminder to our own world."
   
Directed by Ron Jenkins, The Last Tree of Rapa Nui stars stage veterans Jennifer Lyon and Ryan Black, as well as Nadine Villasin and Peter Fernandes, who play island children Ana and Benzi, respectively.
   
"The story also talks about the conflict between parents and kids," Pyttlik says. "It’s about the kids seeing the devastation before the parents do, yet the parents don’t listen because they’re just kids — that mentality that parents always know best. Sometimes children figure out stuff before parents do because they have a more pure, direct view of the world that’s less complicated by payments, mortgages or whatever."
   
To properly appeal to kids, Pyttlik — who first pitched the idea for The Last Tree to MTYP artistic director Leslee Silverman last February on the advice of his daCapo colleague Clinton Skibitzky — says he took a contemporary musical direction combined with traditional instruments.
   
"I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the native sound would be for that part of the Polynesian region," Pyttlik says. "Obviously we don’t have any recordings from the past but Easter Island does have a festival every year called Tapati. It’s a touristy thing but they celebrate their tradition through relatively authentic music and dance passed on through generations, so I was able get those recordings. I listened to that, did some research about the instruments they would use at the time and tried to put it in a songwriting style that was contemporary enough that younger and modern audiences could identify with it."
 

The Last Tree of Rapa Nui
Jan. 13, 7 p.m.; Jan. 14-15, 1 p.m. & 4 p.m,
Manitoba Theatre for Young People