As the Toronto production of Lisa Nasson’s Mischief enters technical rehearsals at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre, the above statement by the play’s director (and Tarragon Artistic Director), Mike Payette, resonates strongly and piques my curiosity about what happens when a production transfers from one city to another.
Produced at Halifax’s Neptune Theatre in the fall of 2025, the Toronto premiere of Nasson’s play opens January 15 and runs to February 8, 2026.
I had the opportunity to speak with Payette via Zoom. The cast has moved into the theatre for final preparations, and he adds:
“I’m really excited about the expansion and the deepening of what we learned in Halifax and bringing that into the [Toronto] rehearsal…Lisa (playwright), myself, and Joelle [Peters, assistant with Mike] are really looking into what worked from a dramaturgical and story perspective. There’s been an evolution of new writing for this Toronto production that has grounded this production in an awesome way.”
Mike relayed that Andrew Moro’s set feels like home, and the cast is chuffed that his design is making its mark at Tarragon, alongside Maddie Bautista’s sound design and Leigh Ann Vardy’s lighting design.
Mischief is set mostly in Chris’s Convenience store on a reserve outside downtown Halifax. Protagonist Brooke (Lisa Nasson) works there, and her Uncle Chris (Jeremy Proulx) is the proprietor. She hears about escalating protests over the removal of the statue of Edward Cornwallis in Cornwallis Park, just in front of the train station in the south end of Halifax. Considered the founder of Halifax, the statue became the centre of controversy in the city.
In 1749, Cornwallis issued an edict ordering the killing of any Mi’kmaw person, man, woman, or child who opposed the founding of the city on their land, and the return of their scalps to him. Brooke struggles with her feelings about these protests regarding the statue. She’s aware that people who come into the store will have differing opinions about the issue.
Other individuals who enter the store have a tremendous influence on Brooke. As a Mi’kmaw person, she grapples not only with this incident regarding the statue but also with the contemporary issues of living on the same land where her ancestors were targeted, murdered and preyed upon.
This horrid and ugly truth about Canadian and Haligonian history cannot be denied. Payette believes there’s still a long way to go in education and in what’s in the history books. There’s learning at school (matinees are already planned), learning at home, and learning about what’s happening outside. Mike further elaborates:
“There’s lots of social discourse in the country re-framing history and re-igniting the truth of what our connection to this land is and the First Peoples of this land. There’s been evolution, but that being said, it’s specific to region, province and the specificity where education is happening…It‘s not a one-size-fits-all curriculum as we’ve a long way to go, but there is evolution.”
Payette loves the dual meaning of the word ‘mischief’. Depending on how the script is read (and, most importantly, when audiences come to see the play), the duality of the characters fascinates him. When he says, ‘Mischief is the agent for change’, I’m intrigued once again. Within mischief, there’s disruption, a kind of revolution. Things have to stir. That disruption has sparked waves of revolution throughout history, prompting change. The distinction between someone’s definition of a crime and someone’s definition of changing a system (in the eye of the beholder) is part of Brooke’s journey.
While carrying serious overtones of change, the play also offers some very funny comic moments. Payette says humans are exceptional. There’s so much we endure daily, and it’s been intense for many years. There’s an element of survival in all of us:
“It’s a hard moment. We’re all navigating so many things and still have the capacity to get out of bed and do our daily activities… figuring out ways to move through the heartache and struggle. Humour and laughter are a big part of that journey.”
Not ignoring the difficult parts of the characters’ lives, they come together to remind each other of the joy they feel when they are together. With a smile, Mike said, ‘Sometimes that means taking the piss,’ meaning that you sometimes have to joke, tease, and have a laugh in that process, but it’s never meant in a malicious manner at all.
It’s a way to heal:
“While Mischief is a story of grief and relationship to social injustice and questioning all of these things, at the forefront, it’s a story of family, of love, and of joy. Underlining all of this is humour and laughter.”
Yolanda Bonnell, Trina Moyan and Devin MacKinnon also appear in the production.
Mischief plays in the Mainspace at Tarragon Theatre, 30 Bridgman Avenue, Toronto. For tickets: tarragontheatre.com or call (416) 531-1827.
