Zarqa Nawaz stages world premiere of comedy Mosque Heist

Museums, casinos and banks have all been robbed on screen.

Zarqa Nawaz figured it was time for a mosque.

The Regina creator behind Little Mosque on the Prairie is bringing a new kind of caper to the stage with Mosque Heist, a comedy making its world premiere at Globe Theatre on Friday.

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It also marks two firsts for Nawaz. She wrote the play and stars as Kareema, making her debut both as a playwright and stage actor.

“We’ve seen capers in museums, in banks, in casinos. We’ve never seen a heist in a mosque ever before,” Nawaz said during a media preview Thursday.

“So it’s giving this genre, I feel, a fresh breath because it’s very original and there’s challenges and stakes people have never seen or anticipated before.”

The story follows Kareema, a Regina caterer who has 48 hours to find $1 million to save her husband from a loan shark.

Her solution is to put together a crew and rob her own mosque.

But Nawaz adds another wrinkle: the robbery is planned for Laylat al-Qadr, the 27th night of Ramadan and one of the holiest nights in Islam.

Playwright and actor Zarqa Nawaz speaks with reporters about Mosque Heist during a media preview at Globe Theatre in Regina on Oct. 1, 2026. (Jacob Bamhour/980 CJME)

Nawaz said her own knowledge of Islam and the Muslim community helped her find the unlikely setting for a heist story.

“Whenever you write a heist comedy, there has to be an institution that, for some reason, gets the most money in the year on one particular day,” she said.

Nawaz said mosques often hold major fundraisers that night because congregations are especially full.

“It was a perfect opportunity for a heist,” she said. “It was a perfect setup that that is the night when a desperate Muslim would need a million dollars, and the only place she could get it would be to rob her own mosque.”

That sets up what Nawaz described as a deliberate contradiction using her experience with the faith and community to imagine “the worst thing you could do on the holiest night of Islam.”

Comedy without the ‘trauma line’

Director Haysam Kadri said that premise was part of what attracted him to the production.

Kadri, who is Muslim, said many productions he has directed involving South Asian, Middle Eastern or North African communities have dealt with heavier subject matter.

Mosque Heist offered something different.

“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,” Kadri said.

“So that was really exciting. It was refreshing.”

That doesn’t mean they treated authenticity as a punchline.

Kadri said the play went through about eight drafts as the team worked to make sure the story honoured the culture and faith while still delivering a comedy audiences could follow and enjoy.

Nawaz said having Kadri at the helm made it easier to juggle writing the production with playing its lead character.

“Having someone who’s also Muslim is wonderful because we speak the same language and understand the same culture,” she said.

“Having that shared experience has been fantastic.”

Director Haysam Kadri speaks with reporters at Globe Theatre on Oct. 1, 2026. (Jacob Bamhour/980 CJME)

Several cast members are also Muslim.

Ahead of opening night, Nawaz said imams from Regina mosques were invited to see the production. She said the reaction afterward was enthusiastic, particularly about the smaller details incorporated into the story.

“They were just ecstatic about how wonderful it was, about how we got all the little tiny details correct,” Nawaz said. “It was funny, but it was also very authentic to the community.”

Kadri said inviting members of Regina’s Muslim community was important.

“Representation matters,” he said.

“If we’re not looking to make theatre accessible for the entire community, I don’t think we’re doing our job.”

Regina plays itself

Nawaz knows another character particularly well: Regina.

The production is set in the city where Nawaz lives and where much of her career has been built.

“Because I live here, I mean, of course I would place it here,” she said.

Nawaz pointed to the success of Saskatchewan-set comedies Little Mosque on the Prairie and Corner Gas, saying those productions helped demonstrate that comedy created and set on the Prairies could find a much wider audience.

“I credit Saskatchewan,” she said. “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.”

For all the discussion about representation, faith and authenticity, Nawaz said she isn’t asking audiences to leave the theatre feeling like they’ve sat through a lesson.

She wants them laughing.

“I feel that what I want people to walk away with is just laughter,” Nawaz said, adding she hopes audiences leave thinking they have never seen anything quite like it.

Mosque Heist features an eight-member cast and officially opens Friday at Globe Theatre in Regina.