The South Island has been colonised by France and is prosperous, while the English-speaking North Island languishes far behind.
That is the premise for Le Sud, which plays at the Settlers Festival Theatre over the next three days.
"I'd had the idea of a French-speaking South Island and an English-speaking North Island for a long time," playwright Dave Armstrong told the Otago Daily Times.
"The play assumes the French successfully colonised the South Island, which is now a wealthy independent French-speaking nation, in stark contrast to the English-colonised North Island, which is in a state of constant recession, with race relations leaving a lot to be desired.
"The South Island is a socialist country, like France. It's very rich, while the North Island has free-market economics and it's all come tumbling down. They have a ruling coalition made up of different political parties.
"The South Island, by contrast, is very chic. Its leader is a French, severe-looking woman with glasses who everyone thinks is a lesbian.
"The South is rich and has all the power, so the North is forced to look for foreign investment to build a nuclear reactor in Wellington."
Le Sud had its origins in Wanaka.
"When I was a kid, we used to have broadcasts at school about the nuclear bomb-testing at Mururoa Atoll and I would wonder what it would be like if we were colonised by France and became French," Mr Armstrong said.
"I told Wanaka Festival of Colour director Philip Tremewan about the idea and he offered to commission it. So, it's set in Wanaka because of that. It was originally going to be set in Wellington, but I realised setting it in the South Island would be apposite and I thought it would be funnier if the North Island were the country bumpkins.
"But it makes a lot of jokes at Wanaka's expense. There are lots of jokes. It's topical and draws on a lot of things happening in real life. Basically, it takes the mickey out of everyone."
Le Sud follows three politicians from Le Nord (the North), who travel to Le Sud (the South) to plead with their rich neighbours to give them foreign aid and cheap power so the country can progress.
A tense round of negotiations follows.
"Le Sud looks at race relations and colonialism in all its many forms and asks whether our British heritage is one we should be proud of and whether we could have done better," Mr Armstrong says.
"It also questions the recent political, economic and moral decisions made by successive New Zealand governments.
"Most of all, Le Sud is a rollicking political and social satire that warmly pokes fun at three cultures, two islands and one country."
Le Sud plays at the Settlers Festival Theatre at 8pm today, 2pm and 8pm tomorrow and 8pm on Monday.
It will then play at the Queenstown Memorial Hall at 7pm on October 15 and 16.
