It is really no surprise that Jean-Michel Frère is drawn to the caustic world of Francis the badger and his collection of pig, mouse, rat, fox and wolf companions. Like something from La Fontaine, mixed with the scathing cruelty of Reiser or Desproges, this comic strip digs into unemployment, ecology, capitalism, consumerism, humanitarianism, dictatorships, overpopulation, AIDS and more, tearing into political correctness, bigotry and all political, economic and social preconceptions. “Francis is weak, cowardly, cynical, cruel and egocentric,” explain Pauline Desmarets, François Saussus and Sébastien Derock. “He will happily abandon morality, ethics, loyalty or guilt in order to satisfy his own basic needs: drink-screw-eat.”

The play adapts thirty or so adventures and incidents from the six-panel comic strips that all begin with “Francis is on a walk in the country,” and subverts the codes of object theatre, in the spirit of Hara Kiri and Charlie Hebdo, to give the audience 40 minutes of ruthlessly caustic dark humour. The staging is spartan and precise, full of satirical, liberating, crazy ideas and finds in a set resembling a child’s bedroom converted into a trashy puppet theatre.

Everyone is hauled over the coals, in the absurd little world of Francis sauve le monde, full of cruel but salutary laughs.