REGINA, Sask. — Regina’s Globe Theatre is opening its new season with a world premiere that puts a very different spin on the classic heist story.
“Mosque Heist” officially opens Friday and runs through Oct. 18. The absurdist crime comedy was written by Zarqa Nawaz, the creator of CBC’s “Little Mosque on the Prairie,” who also stars as Kareema, marking her stage play and stage acting debuts.
The story follows Kareema, a Regina caterer given 48 hours to come up with one million dollars in ransom money to save her husband from a ruthless loan shark.
With no legal options left, Kareema assembles a crack team of “Mosqueteers”: an uptight psychiatrist, a well-meaning tech nerd and her own cynical daughter. Their target is Kareema’s own mosque on the holiest night of the year.
For Nawaz, the unusual setting came from combining the mechanics of a traditional heist with a night of enormous significance for Muslims.
“For Muslims in North America, it is the 27th night of Ramadan,” Nawaz said. “It's called Laylat al-Qadr. And a lot of non-Muslims don't realize that they've heard of Ramadan, but they haven't heard of this one night. And it is the holiest night of Islam.”
That night also provides the financial setup for the robbery.
“And it's also the night that mosques do the biggest fundraisers because they know they have the biggest audience, Muslims come,” Nawaz said. “The congregations are the most full that night. So it was the perfect opportunity for a heist.”
Nawaz said the story draws on her own knowledge of Islam and the Muslim community while deliberately turning a familiar religious setting into the backdrop for an unconventional crime comedy.
“I think what the most important thing is, it's not really about Muslims as much as it's about a heist by people who happen to be Muslims,” Nawaz said. “It's truly a caper set in an original format.”
Director Haysam Kadri said the production went through about eight drafts as the creative team worked to balance the comedy with an authentic portrayal of the culture and faith.
“So it's a long process to make sure that we honour the culture, we honour the faith, but also have a show that's really exciting and that from top to tail has a through line that an audience can follow and understand and be really entertained by,” Kadri said.
Kadri said the opportunity was particularly appealing because Muslim and South Asian characters are often featured in productions built around heavier subject matter.
“In this case, you don't often get a chance to direct a show that is a pure comedy, especially with Muslims and with South Asians as well,” he said. “So that was really exciting. It was refreshing.”
Nawaz said having Kadri, who is also Muslim, directing the production allowed them to draw on a shared understanding of the culture while she focused on both writing and performing.
“Not having to direct and having someone who's also Muslim is wonderful because we speak the same language and understand the same culture,” Nawaz said. “And so having that shared experience has been fantastic.”
The production has also involved members of Regina’s Muslim community. Nawaz said imams from Regina mosques attended and praised the production’s attention to detail.
“They were just ecstatic about how wonderful it was, about how we got all the little tiny details correct and that it was funny, but it was also very authentic to the community,” Nawaz said.
Kadri said involving the community was important to the production.
“And so it was really important that we invite the members of the mosque, members of the Muslim community,” he said. “And they came yesterday, and I happened to be sitting beside one of the imams, and it was really, really exciting to see the reactions and to see stuff was landing for them, especially the authentic parts about the culture and the religion.”
For Nawaz, bringing the production to Saskatchewan also connects it to the province’s history of successful television comedy.
“In fact, I would say Little Mosque on the Prairie and Corner Gas both were set in Saskatchewan. And they both became massive monster rival hits for two rival broadcasters. And because they were so successful, it gave confidence to our television industry to create television,” Nawaz said.
Nawaz said those Saskatchewan successes helped open the door for other Canadian comedies before adding why she believes a mosque heist is right at home in the province.
“I credit Saskatchewan. Like, we pioneered the television comedy here in this province. So I don't think it's unusual now to premiere the first heist comedy in a mosque in Saskatchewan.”
