Lisa Nasson as Brooke and Yolanda Bonnell as Emily in Mischief. Photo by Stoo Metz
The world premiere of Lisa Nasson’s play Mischief opened at Neptune Theatre’s Scotiabank Studio Theatre on Friday night, September 26th, as part of the Prismatic Arts Festival. The play is set largely in a convenience store on a reserve just outside of downtown Halifax and it explores the way that three of the people who live and work there attempt to balance the realities of living life as a contemporary Mi’kmaw person with thriving while on the same land where their ancestors were repeatedly and brutally targeted, murdered, relocated, preyed upon, and made to suffer under constant colonialism. It’s also a comedy.
It is 2017 and Brooke is working at her Uncle Chris’ Convenience Store when she begins to hear about mounting protests at the Edward Cornwallis statue in Cornwallis Park just in front of the train station in the South End of Halifax. Mi’kmaq elders and community leaders have started calling on the city council to remove the statue because Cornwallis, long considered to be the founder of Halifax, issued a proclamation in 1749 ordering that the Mi’kmaq who opposed the founding of the city on their land (man, woman, or child) be killed and their scalps be brought back to him. At first Brooke isn’t sure how she feels about these protests, since at this point the statue largely fades into the background of the city, and she worries that by drawing sudden attention to it white Haligonians may embrace Cornwallis with newfound ardour out of pure defiance.
It is also a stressful time for Brooke and her Uncle Chris as they are still early in the throes of grief, and although they are both feeling acute loss it is manifesting differently in them and they are finding it difficult to connect with one another in a meaningful way. Brooke finds that she has less and less patience for the clueless white men she encounters in her daily life who are rife with opinions or questions, and both annoy her. At the same time Uncle Chris’ friend Tammy is feeling emboldened by the protests at the Cornwallis statue and Brooke starts to wonder whether there is something more symbolic at play than she originally thought. All this stress, sadness, and feeling lost and unmoored leads to a surprising visitor who reminds her of the resilience and ingenuity of her ancestors.
Lisa Nasson plays Brooke, a young woman whose emotions can quickly change from nonchalance to happiness, to teasing sarcasm, to fury, as we see that she is largely trying to repress the sadness and rage that she feels over the loss of her mom. Her well intentioned uncle, played by Jeremy Proulx walks on eggshells around her, continually trying a different approach to coax her to open up to him. Their relationship, although momentarily fragile, provides much of the heart of the play, showing that while fragmented and complicated they provide a safe familial space for each other rooted in unconditional love. Trina Moyan’s Tammy often seems comically impervious to the tensions between Chris and Brooke, as she has more than enough drama in her own life. She provides much of the comedic relief in the play, but also her tenderness toward Brooke, while respecting her boundaries and not rushing in to attempt to parent her, is very poignant. Devin MacKinnon plays two very different white men capturing very authentically the problematic ways in either overconfidence or feigned meekness some folks still are wholly ignorant when speaking about Indigenous issues. Yolanda Bonnell gives a glorious performance as Emily, someone who is continually surprising, but filled with strength, with joy and big heartedness, and poetic wisdom that doesn’t dictate anything specific to Brooke, but opens up her mind to begin to consider things in a different way.
The set and the projection design by Andy Moro are especially captivating. The inside of the convenience store is enclosed giving it the feeling of a den or a cave, and when Emily arrives she causes the power to go off. We are able to see Brooke in the utility room in shadow attempting to restore the power, but then the entire store is filled with magic, enhanced also by Leigh Ann Vardy’s lighting design, and we are transported into a world of metaphor and legend. I found it a little bit jarring later when we suddenly left the store completely and the projections were used to to situate us in a new more realistic setting, but then as the play went on I realized that the line between the realism and the magical realism is not as firm as I had originally assumed.
It might be interesting to play with the pacing a little in the early scenes in the store by having a few more customers coming in and out to show how busy Brooke is being kept at work, and maybe even that Fishermen Fred feels emboldened to monopolize her time when it’s obvious that she doesn’t have any to spare. The play is directed by Mike Payette and I found the way that he builds the tensions between the characters in the ways that they take up space, either in the store or in the park, to be riveting and effective.
Mischief is a funny, tender, and insightful play about a family deep in fresh grief contending with the reminders of longterm, systemic grief, suffering and loss that are woven into the city and province around them. Edward Cornwallis literally loomed large in the park that bore his name for 86 years, but his gruesome, despicable legacy of violent colonialism has cast a dark shadow over Kjipuktuk since 1749. How do we begin to heal from that? In Mischief this healing starts for Brooke with her finding the courage to engage, to confront the source of her grief and her fear, and to fight back with a little bit of mischief.
Mischief plays at Neptune Theatre’s Scotiabank Studio Theatre (1589 Argyle Street, Halifax) until October 12th, 2025 as part of the Prismatic Arts Festival. It is a Co-Production with Native Earth Performing Arts and Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. Tickets range in price from $73.00 to $33.00 based on seating and are available online here, by calling the Box Office at 902.429.7070 or visiting in person at 1589 Argyle Street. Shows run Tuesdays to Sundays at 7:30pm with 2:00pm matinees on Saturdays and Sundays. Special Performances are as follows:
Industry Night
Wednesday, October 1 – 7:30pm
Talkback
Thursday, October 9 – 7:30pm
Masked Performance
Sunday, October 5 – 2:00pm
Mischief plays as part of the Prismatic Arts Festival, which takes place in venues throughout the city until October 5th. For more information about Prismatic’s programming please visit this website. Mischief will play at the Tarragon Theatre (30 Bridgman Avenue, Toronto) from January 15th to February 8th, 2026. For more information about these performances please visit this website.
