Le Sud by Dave ArmstrongAuckland Theatre CompanyMaidment TheatreUntil March 6thPolitics is a power play game but beneath the cut and thrust of running a democracy there lurks disunity, back biting, sexual indiscretions, endless double dipping in the parli
Le Sud by Dave Armstrong
Auckland Theatre Company
Maidment Theatre
Until March 6th
Politics is a power play game but beneath the cut and thrust of running a democracy there lurks disunity, back biting, sexual indiscretions, endless double dipping in the parliamentary trough and the quest for personal power and prestige.
These are some of the themes Dave Armstrong's new play “Le Sud” explores. The play has, in the year since it was first performed been seen in six venues throughout the country and its success looks as though it will become one of the regularly performed New Zealand comedies along with those by Roger Hall.
The play is based on the assumption that the French colonised the South Island (Le Sud) of New Zealand and the British the North Island.
In the French speaking, socialist South Island people work a 30 hour week and they have never introduced anti-smacking or anti smoking laws. They are also very wealthy being the major source of power for the energy starved North Island.
The play focuses on a meeting between three representatives of the South with their counterparts from the North. The French contingent consists of The Prime Minister Francois Duvauchelle (Andrew Grainger), Dominique Le Bons (Jennifer Ward-Lealand) the Energy Minister and Tama te Tonga (George Henare) The Minister of Indigenous Affairs.
The North Island team is made up of Prime Minister Jim Petersen (Michael Lawrence), Energy spokesperson Moana Maree Matakana (Miriama McDowell) and MMP partner Lyndsey Marsland (Gregory Cooper).
The French have decided to increase the power price from two dollars a unit to four dollars a unit. The North can only afford two dollars as the country is in melt down with Tuhoe promising civil war and Jim Henderson’s poll rating slipping.
The first 10 minutes of the play is entirely in French but third form French will probably get you through and as most of the jokes are third form level as well it should be a breeze.
You’ll get the d’Auckland jokes and pick up the clever way in which Tuhoe are linked to Jean Paul Satre.
It’s a play which doesn’t get too serious about its subject but it a rollicking piece of farce with some great word play. There are some particularly clever lines where the French misinterpret certain English phrases so that “cooking the books” becomes “simmering the publications.”
The play has been rewritten for its Auckland outing with a number of jokes about the Super City. However most New Zealand cites come in for a bit of flak with remembrance of Vichy Invercargill during World War II and, during discussions about a new capital the pride of place for the most inhospitable, boring place goes to Palmerston North.
Several public figures come in for a bit of ridicule including Bill English who has ended up being a politician still representing Dipton but in the French speaking parliament.
Jennifer Ward-Lealand as Dominique Le Bons plays the chic French minister with a brilliant blend of the strong-minded, haughty and sultry while Andrew Grainger as the French PM is a fine mix of Gallic charmer and buffoon.
George Henare as the conniving Maori minister Tama te Tonga creates an interesting character who is uses his status as indigenous to make money on the side with his decisions on Maori protocol and is constantly on the phone to make the most of his insider knowledge.
In one of the wittier lines from the play he refers to the Tuhoe activists of the North Island as “Children of the missed opportunities”.
Michael Lawrence as Jim Henderson gives a great performance as the blustering, ineffectual North Zealand PM who also does a delightful camp impression of Dominique.
Gregory Cooper as Lyndsey Marsland the leader of the FUCT (a version of ACT) party looks a bit like Ronnie Corbett and is a suitably smarmy character but a wheeler dealer who has a natural affinity with Tama te Tonga.
Miriama McDowell as the “Le Femme Noir” who finds it expedient to be the femme fatale when the going gets difficult does an excellent job of holding her coquettishness in check.
Tracey Grant Lord has created a beautiful set featuring a French salon with large murals of nineteenth century pacific island scenes and some exquisite furniture. The classy look is enhanced by the two women being elegantly attired in creations by Adrienne Winkelmann and Trelise Cooper.
