In “Haunted,” a comical horror stage play, residents are haunted by their home’s previously living, Indigenous American ghosts, who pass their time with the tunes of the aughts, and reflect on the still present, lack of dimensionality and sovereignty in the Indigenous presence in America.

“Haunted” stars Aaron (Chingwe Padraig Sullivan) and Ash (Bradley Lewis) live their deaths attached to Britney Spears songs, and a home they are determined to keep free from living occupants. The play is produced by Company One Theatre and written by its first Indigenous American playwright, Tara Moses, who will spook the Boston Public Library on its debut on Jan. 24.

Ash and Aaron have been bound to the residence of the living for 20 years, who progressively unravels the implications behind their trapped state that has kept them from reaching the realm of the Spirit World. “Haunted” highlights some of the many trials and the overall welfare of First Nation people in the United States, who have been in a long fight for land sovereignty which is currently addressed as the Land Back Movement. The movement seeks restitution of land to America’s previous owners, along with the ability to self-govern. The mission behind the movement also addresses the abuse of land resources, and introduces Native conservation practices, while not limited to reparations for the descendants of Black diaspora.

“I want the audience to know active, tactile things they can do right now, today. Strategies for land back are clearly laid out of what folks can do, how it can work in practice,” Moses said in an interview. “My biggest gripe on these streets is that a lot of plays are very educational, and they make you think about things, I’m tired of thinking I’m ready for doing.”

Sullivan, who plays Aaron, believes “the play very clearly lays out the emotional catharsis that can happen with land back, and also the emotional turmoil of what happens when land doesn’t go back. It very clearly also states that anyone and everyone can very quickly, very immediately participate and help other people and themselves in one fell swoop, if they just try.” 

The play also stages awareness for rich, North American Native culture that also recognizes its queer community, which in this case refers to an individual with male and female characteristics as Two-Spirit. 

“My character that I play is Two-Spirit, and so getting to highlight that sector of the Native community, which is really something that I think a lot of folks who are not Native or Indigenous have any idea what that even means or is about,” Lewis said. “It’s really cool to be able to represent that very beautiful part of Native culture, and something that’s been around for centuries in different iterations, from tribe to tribe, different ideas of it being expressed.”

“Haunted,” although produced to bring political conversations into the limelight that envelope the world of America’s previous stewards, also emphasizes the boisterous connection between these siblings. “The beautiful part about [the play] is that it’s done with such beautiful humor and poignancy that is the central relationship between these two siblings in this play,” Lewis said. 

“The importance of this spirituality, in and of itself, is not most important, it just helps highlight the fact that the land is a living thing that we are in relationship with. And that’s not a metaphor. That’s not like a saying. It’s not a slogan, it’s just a literal truth,” Sullivan said.

Within the political and social commentary audiences should heed, the production hopes to entertain with slapstick nostalgia that should be approached with the advice, “cringe is dead, let’s have fun,” said Sullivan. 

“Haunted” is set to run at the Boston Public Library’s Central Branch from Jan. 24 to Feb. 15.