If you’ve vis­it­ed Akaroa, you’ll know how the li’l Can­ter­bury vil­lage prides itself on its French­ness. See, it was found­ed by the French.

Dave Arm­strong’s new play “Le Sud” takes the idea of the French in Aotearoa a few steps fur­ther — ce qui si le français avait colonisé l’Île du Sud?

Uh, I mean, what if the French colonised the South Island?

The com­e­dy is set at a polit­i­cal meet­ing, with the Kiwi-as North Zealan­ders pay­ing a vis­it to their Gal­lic south­ern neigh­bours to see about buy­ing some of that elec­tric­i­ty they have an abun­dance of.

We meet the sleazy South Zealand prime min­is­ter, his les­bion­ique deputy, and their min­is­ter of native affairs, who’ll do any­thing for a dol­lar. Or a franc. And if you’ve learned a bit of French in school, you’ll be able to feel clever through­out their open­ing dia­logue en français.

The North Zealand team are lead by the good ol’ Kiwi bloke PM, and his coali­tion part­ners — a very left-wing Maori woman and a very ACT-like young dude.

The sto­ry man­ages to be quite naughty at times — much more naughty than you’d get on the tel­ly — and the cast are bril­liant with both the ver­bal and phys­i­cal com­e­dy.

I will also praise the bold, effec­tive cos­tumes by Nic Smil­lie. It’s kind of nice know­ing that New Zealand polit­i­cal cul­ture can be summed up in three well cho­sen suits.

And when all this comes togeth­er, Dave Arm­strong’s pen of lolz man­ages to skew­er French, Kiwi, Maori and polit­i­cal cul­ture, throw in a bit of sex farce (Oh-haw-haw! Baguette!), and pro­duce a real­ly fun, fun­ny play.

“Le Sud” plays at Down­stage until August 22.