A Pi Theatre Production, Written by William Maranda

The Eighth Land is written as an environmental allegory modelled after the supposed civilization collapse on the Easter Islands and written in the dramatic style of Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus.

In desperation, the young king Te-Te reviews the lack of prosperity on his island and sets about to discover what to do. He considers the dilemma that, though he keeps the rules which his ancestors had taught him, there is scarce food and a lot of strife. Te-Te is surrounded by a chorus of Flies and Fleas (the embodiment of their ancestors) which cause further irritation to his desperation. Using magical clapping stones, the young king calls upon the legendary founder of the Eighth Land, Hotu Matua, who makes his appearance through one of the famous Moai which populate the island. Hotu Matua advises the king to scream at Hiva, the goddess of plenty. With Polynesian ritual, Te-Te screams at the goddess of plenty who reluctantly appears and critically informs Te-Te that there are no more islands of prosperity to hand out, that Hotu Matua had got the last of her endowments and that the humans had misused her generosity. Te-Te, disbelieving what Hiva had to say, sends out his own scouting party to find another island. The queen mother, Oehe, dies. Te-Te confronts his final conflict for there remains but one large palm on the island and he would need its wood for ritualistic purposes for the burial of his mother. Upon their return, the scouting party informs the king that they could not find another island. Te-Te then considers the fate of the palm tree. Should he leave it living, cut it down for his mother, or use it for other purposes. As he contemplates the issues, Nuku, the god who sets the rules, tells Te-Te to be the king and cut down the palm for a funeral bier. As a final act, Te-Te cuts down the palm to build an ocean-going catamaran to take his people away from the land of strife and desperation without the knowledge of a known sighting. The flies and fleas, the ancestral spirits, collapse on the beach.