ArtsMischief, on until Oct. 12 at the Neptune Theatre, examines how colonialism long-term effects still shape the cityMischief examines how colonialism long-term effects still shape the cityMorgan Mullin · CBC Arts · Posted: Sep 25, 2025 4:33 PM EDT | Last Updated: September 25Trina Moyan and Lisa Nasson in Nasson’s play Mischief. (Stoo Metz)When actor Trina Moyan first got hold of the script for Mischief — playing at Halifax’s Neptune Theatre until Oct. 12 — she couldn’t believe her luck. “I was just so thrilled with the Tammy character, because she’s funny. She’s an activist. She’s incredibly powerful,” says Moyan, a Nehiyaw iskwew (Plains Cree woman) from Frog Lake First Nation in Alberta. “Finally, a powerful Indigenous woman in her mid-years, and she’s just pushing along and holding up the community and doing powerful work. So yeah, when they asked me, I [said], ‘Yes, yes, yes, please and thank you.'”Strong, lifted-from-real-life women of Indigenous ancestry form the bedrock of Mischief, a play written by and starring Lisa Nasson, a Mi’kmaw theatre artist from Millbrook First Nation in Nova Scotia. It follows the life of a woman who’s trying to balance her job at a convenience store with visits from an ancient ancestor, all as her community rallies to tear down the statue of a problematic historical figure. For Moyan the role is a reclamation of the historical record. “I always go back to the beginning of when our European people arrived here in Canada,” she explains. “Our nations were — and are — largely matriarchal civilizations. And that was all up-ended when the patriarchy arrived, and our First Nations women, our Indigenous women, were essentially removed from our positions of power and influence over our communities.””So for me,” she continues, “it was just really beautiful to see Tammy… as this matriarch who is really taking her rightful place in her community, and doing the work of an activist.” After all, the actor adds, most Indigenous protests and demonstrations are led by the matriarchs. Moyan says that roles like hers are a shining example of what Nasson does best. “Her writing is about celebrating the women in her life.””That’s exactly what I wanted to do with this play,” Nasson responds. She wanted to write about women in a way that didn’t ask “What do we do?” or “What are we supposed to do?” “These are women who already know in their blood what they are supposed to be doing and what they are fighting for,” she says. Even as colonialism — represented in Mischief by the problematic statue — attempts to silence women, the play shows that “women are still strong, and we’re still here, and we’re still fighting for each other,” the playwright says.Lisa Nasson in her play Mischief. (Stoo Metz)That case of the problematic statue, which so much of Mischief hinges around, is as true to life as the characters Nasson creates. Edward Cornwallis, an English military man who was sent to what we now call Nova Scotia to colonize Halifax, was commemorated with a statue in 1931. When Cornwallis arrived in 1749, he made a proclamation that the scalp of anyone opposed to his mission should be taken. “It gave permission for any non-Indigenous person to take the scalp of men, women, elders and children,” says Moyan. Mi’kmaw leaders of the day penned a letter in response. According to historian Andrew John Bayly Johnston, their reply said: “The place where you are, where you are building dwellings, where you are now building a fort, where you want, as it were, to enthrone yourself, this land of which you want to make yourself absolute master, this land belongs to me.” The letter went on to call the settlement of Halifax “a great theft.”In 2018, after public discourse was re-ignited, in part by a poem from the city’s poet laureate Rebecca Thomas, the statue was removed. (Nasson, who is from Nova Scotia and remembers driving past the statue as a child, says the city took the statue down “because of vandalism” and not due to Cornwallis’s actions.)”No one really spoke about how damaging that statue could be toward Mi’kmaq people,” Nasson says. “So I wanted to show why we were hurt.” It was a chance to show “our side of the story,” she adds.Seeing Cornwallis being celebrated “was really conflicting for me,” Nasson says, “so I wanted to write a play about it, but a play that is driven by Indigenous people — with our humor and our love and our resilience and our wit and our love for each other.””That’s why this play is powerful,” Moyan says. “It is the truth, and that’s why I’m so thrilled to be a part of it… It’s not just acting. It’s not just a story. It’s not just theatre. It’s Canadian history — and it is offering that true education.”Mischief runs until Oct. 12 at the Neptune Theatre (1593 Argyle St.) in Halifax.ABOUT THE AUTHOROriginally from rural New Brunswick but based in Halifax for almost a decade, Morgan Mullin is a freelance journalist with bylines in Chatelaine and The Globe and Mail. A Polaris Prize Juror, she covers music, arts and culture on the east coast—primarily at local news site The Coast, where she is Arts Editor. She can be found on Twitter at @WellFedWanderer.
This play will change how you think about Halifax
