Must be Pakistani. A creative, intelligent, emotionally repressed young woman torn between filial duty and personal freedom. Sensitive yet quietly defiant. Has a deep inner life, theatre lover, former painter, dreamer. Heavy dramatic arc from obedient daughter ? emotionally explosive confrontation ? psychologically ambiguous transformation. Must handle intense emotional scenes, physical performance elements, and psychological horror beats. Requires strong subtle acting and controlled escalation.

Caucasian. Ayesha’s best friend. Playful, modern, outspoken. Represents Western individualism in contrast to Ayesha’s cultural expectations. Her humor masks anxiety. Loyal but naïve about consequences.

South Asian. A hardworking immigrant father who believes security equals love. Authoritative but not villainous, he truly believes he is protecting his daughter. Carries pride, fear, and generational trauma.

South Asian. A gentle, deeply conditioned woman who once lived Ayesha’s fate. Torn between empathy and survival. Her silence carries decades of compromise.

Calm, authoritative spiritual leader called to perform an exorcism. Grounded presence amid chaos. Requires strong vocal presence. Ritual recitation (Quran verses). Controlled physical blocking during exorcism.

A mysterious spiritual healer whose true nature may not be human. Calm, enigmatic, unsettling.

South Asian. Polite, awkward prospective groom. Not malicious, simply part of the system.

Any ethnicity, Nova Scotian accent. Tori is a barista at a busy cafe. She longs to be a chef but scarcely has the time, resources, or confidence to pursue it with any real energy. She watches a lot of TV, especially food shows. She’s a quirky dreamer. She’s quite eccentric, funny, friendly. The older men at the cafe flirt with her a bit and she mostly doesn’t mind, but with Lloyd she told her manager and he was banned, so when Ben shows up with a bequest for her, she feels too guilty/hesitant to accept it. She has not left Halifax but for a few times in her life. She helped out her single mom with her younger siblings a lot.

Cheryl is a working-class woman from Truro who had a tough upbringing but left it behind after school and moved to Halifax. She is a server at a restaurant but has other things she really enjoys in life, including a small independent business, and other charitable activities. Her life is modest but full. She is quite peaceful, though she’s dealt with a lot of hard times. She is wise, gentle, social, and her nurturing of Ben is what finally gets him to his acceptance. She and Lloyd had an affair for years. Ben caught them and snitched to the mother but Cheryl bears no grudge. She has some difficult family life and hard financial times but she takes it in stride. She’s no saint but she is a deeply good person. Lloyd found her irresistible. She was a bit wild, with attractive confidence and a kind of exotic sparkle.

Shirley, white, light local accent if any. Shirley lives alone with her dog Murray. She’s been estranged from her son for about 15 years. She was married to one of Halifax’s biggest developers. Her husband was a workaholic and had affairs. But she loved him. Her son caught the father and exposed his infidelity, but Shirley didn’t leave. The son self-exiled and broke contact. Shirley felt great shame and hurt about this and has had a long road since. She is a tireless charity worker, clean, polite, stern, and quiet, with audiobooks to occupy her. She has some friends and loves the farmer’s market. When her ex-husband was dying he reached out to her and they reunited. She helped him with his illness and found some peace.

McKinnon, 70s, white, light local accent if any. Roy McKinnon is one of the biggest developers in Halifax. He joined with Lloyd MacDonald to start a company that is responsible for many of the bigger residential and commercial projects in town. Lloyd has always been in search of a father figure and found that in Lloyd. He is an excellent businessman, sometimes a bit too ambitious, wealthy, conservative, competitive, convivial at functions, organized. He could’ve been a politician but didn’t want the job. He likes providing for his family, though he has strained relationships with them, especially his kids. He gets up early, stays healthy, puts a lot of pressure on himself. On paper he is wildly successful. Inside he feels a longing for approval from his father, which will never end. He is a staunch believer in survival of the fittest. He loves Halifax and wants to scale it quickly to a more competitive, cosmopolitan city. He loves sailing and fishing. He is known broadly for reno-viction and handshake deals with municipal councillors and private interest. Roy knows everyone. He has a lot of power in Halifax.

Manager, white, light accent if any. He and a few friends have completely gutted a storied fish 'n' chips restaurant and turned it into a pseudo-cosmopolitan, hipster restaurant. He is critical of Halifax, travels frequently, is trying to be a big fish in a small pond. He’s an opportunist. He had no guilt about firing all the staff without any severance pay. But he’s part of a community of young ambitious and entrepreneurial people trying to update Halifax. He loves his identity of restaurateur. He is fashionable and confident.

Michael, any ethnicity but white or Jewish, light accent if any. Lloyd’s best friend. Michael is an intellectual, professorial, kind, warm, thoughtful. In touch with his grief about Lloyd’s death. Michael is likely a retired professor at Dalhousie or a successful local business owner. He and Lloyd played tennis together. He is a bit of come-from-away though he’s been in town a long time. He is glad to see Ben to connect over Lloyd’s passing but Ben is in denial and refuses the intimacy.

Alex McCullough, any ethnicity, Nova Scotian accent. Alex went to Dalhousie and became an estate lawyer. He’s had a private family business for decades. He’s trying to train his son to take over the business. He has a lot of energy, is a good worker, a proud Nova Scotian, fun and social. Business is booming. Alex is a bit scattered and loses things regularly. He can get a bit distracted but he knows the law inside and out. His son is frustratingly slow and distracted and he’s worried about him.

Hiker, Nova Scotian accent, an odd man, a bit of a black sheep, who lives in an old house. He’s endlessly handy and can fix anything. He has a daily hike every day. He has folksy wisdom and is a real history buff. He tried to block Lloyd from developing a resort project and fought off displacement, but the truth is he never had the title to the land. He’s been in the same house his whole life. He yells at the radio. He has a host of health issues which he ignores. He has mystical theories nearing conspiracy. He has trauma from his childhood and family but it hardened him and now he has pride having survived it, and what’s-mine-is-mine protectiveness.

A scary thug with a thick Nova Scotian accent. He owes Steven a favour and agrees to go and scare Ben out of town.

Thick Nova Scotian accent, Mike grew up in a working class household with a scary father and 4 brothers. He struggled in school and got into trouble but found his place in construction. He rose up the ranks and is regarded as a tough foreman who got the job done. In the last few years he’s become a contractor for big development projects and he enjoys the upgrade but hasn’t lost his bullying instincts. He has a bad temper and little control over it. He loves his family. He has no sympathy for losers, having had to claw his way to the top. He is not above reno-viction, or displacement. He’s a fighter. The world is a cruel place so you have to get what you can. Don’t hate the player, hate the game. Mike sank $400k into a big resort project with Lloyd. After years of setting it up, Lloyd pulled out suddenly, mysteriously, and now Mike is waiting to find out the fate of the project. He has a lot of stress about this and wants it resolved now. Lloyd looked down at Mike, as elites always do. He immediately sizes Ben up as a rich brat but needs his investment returned and thinks Ben might have the answers he’s desperate for. An imposing man, not someone you want to mess with.

Barb, any ethnicity, Nova Scotian accent. Friends with Middle-aged woman, they are relentless gossips but polite and well-mannered. They’re friendly. They like stability and are a bit socially awkward so they lean on formality to get them through. They like quiet Halifax routine and don’t want it to grow. They complain about traffic. They talk about the weather.

Limited English, any ethnicity, all accents welcome. Trisha is a newcomer to Nova Scotia. She had a good relationship with Lloyd, who organized her express entry immigration and helped bring her family over. Trisha has had a long journey to Canada and lives a comfortable modest life in Halifax. She has her hands full with three kids and ailing parents but she’s strong and can handle it. She is a real community leader and loves a party. She is social, friendly, a little gossipy, but Christian, principled, and hard-working. She loves her family and runs the show. Lloyd met her when she was working with a cleaning company. He gave her a permanent job keeping the office organized and clean and the two became friends.