Downstage Review: Le Sud - Mince Alors!

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Mince alors! Le Sud at Downstage is a rehearsal of racist, sexist, homophobic clichés and they leave whatever satirical intent there was, toothless. Surely we are over all those fattening over-seasoned fast-laugh jokes about tikanga Maori?

On the other hand there are some excellent details. The flag of le Sud par exemple has a Tricolore where we are used to the Union Jack. And the wondrous long slender legs of Nick Dunbar as Francois Duvauchelle PM of Le Sud were even more eloquent than his delicious accent. Nicolas Sarkozy, eat your heart out.

The action centres on negotiations over the price of southern hydroelectric power. The politicians of the north have come to plead poverty and a need for affordable electricity. We know the feeling.

On one side of the negotiations there is the stylish French speaking Prime Minister of Le Sud with elegant dark suit and slick hair looking rather more like our own Monsieur Qui than the kiwi bloke on the other side. Then there is Heather O’Carroll as his deputy, Dominique, bobo chic and running the show on her glorious red hauts talons. Tama Te Tonga Minister of Native Affairs and Head of Le Tahou Iwi, in his dark striped double breasted suit with cellphone as eternal accessory is forever wheeling and dealing and we all knew who Mark Ruka was thinking of.

The party from the north were less successfully realised. The pale suited scruffy haired but nevertheless cuddly Gavin Rutherford as PM du Nord made a point but his deputy Moana Maree played by the beautiful Olivia Robinson should have been in full colour and lovely shoulders for Duvauchelle’s lusting Gaugin image to work. Dressed as some lesser policy wonk from the SSC she was wasted. The third member of the north’s delegation the MMP representative of the Far Right Freedom Party, Lyndsey Marsland did not make it. It was not Barnaby Fredric’s fault, he had no proper part to play. Even the so diplomatic Dominique removed his chair before he arrived.

The play is more comedy than satire, it has a Shakespearean happy ending with some strategic pairing off and the establishment of a better future. The production has some amusing business and the set befits the wealth of the socialist south. The plot is thin but the device of the negotiation works well.

It is worth seeing even if racism, sexism and homophobia don’t make you laugh. Le Sud is simply a great idea and you will enjoy that.

Sharon Ellis is a Wellington based theatre reviewer.

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