Bollywood. Immigration. Laughter. Home. Love. If you want a night at the theatre with all those boxes checked, an IMM-Permanent Resident is your best – perhaps your only – bet. The play deploys humour beautifully to give its heavier themes palatability.
Directed by Miquelon Rodriguez and produced by Nautanki Bazaar in association with Factory Theatre, An IMM-Permanent Resident is a five-time Dora-nominated theatrical powerhouse. Written and performed by Neha Poduval and Himanshu Sitlani, the standout piece explores the lives of a couple from Mumbai as they immigrate to Canada for their permanent residency … accompanied by a steady stream of laughs. They battle notoriously tedious paperwork, emerging tensions from the tiresome hunt for a well-paying job, and constant rejection from immigration officers because of their “disposition”– all while striving to keep the love and promises they made to each other intact.
Entering the theatre, you are greeted by a stage strewn with the kind of cloth suitcases that immigrant families like my own use when travelling (the cloth ones hold more space, and we always need more space), plus a stress-inducing mess of manila folders and documents. Skilfully designed by Jung-Hye Kim, this minimalist yet versatile set will allow the play’s spatial and narrative openness to dance within it. Working in tandem with the set is Tushar Tukaram Dalvi’s transportive lighting, which will blast us with whiplash speed from the couple’s rose-coloured bliss to high-stakes interrogations which are directed outward, at the audience. We will all share the immigrant experience through those tiny beats of fluorescent light!
Poduval and Sitlani’s performances hold our hearts with their humour, accent changes, and palpable connection to each other. They switch roles skillfully: playing themselves, their parents-in-law, and the immigration officers and their lawyer so seamlessly that you almost forget this is a two-person show. I could not peel my eyes from the delightful way they weave in and out of characters and each other, using their bodies and voices or simple props to bring to life another location – whether Mumbai, Toronto, or a Zoom call with the in-laws. The pair’s dynamic oscillates naturally between simple playfulness and deep emotional tempests which they navigate with empathy and sacrifice: this is the package deal of their long-term partnership.
Peeking through the folds of the performance are songs from the renowned films Kabhi Khushi Khabhie Gham and Kal Ho Naa Ho, which throw us into Bollywood melodrama as we bear the weight of the immigration waiting process alongside Poduval and Sitlani. (And to mesh Mumbai with Canada, Drake is thrown in for good measure. Fair trade, wink wink.) Growing up watching Zee Tv and Bollywood films, I prided myself on picking up a few words here and there, and that familiarity made the performance especially rewarding. And while moments of dialogue in Hindi occur throughout, the performances are powerful enough that meaning is never lost for non-speakers: instead, the audience is gently guided into the culture … even as the characters themselves are increasingly cornered by the Canadian immigration system.
The remarkable performances within An IMM- Permanent Resident probe critical considerations of self-perceived value associated with the process of immigration. They wryly scoff at the stereotype that leaving home to go “foreign” is well-reputed … though one simultaneously risks being labelled the neighbourhood “snob”. And then there is the shame associated with rejection while applying for a visa. Are you just not good enough? Worse, are you a fraud – or even a criminal – just because they perceive you to be one?
Your worth is ultimately defined by your eligibility for permanent residency, but the opportunity promised by immigration soon reveals its price: the stripping of your humanity and invasion of your privacy. And here we find the real question: what is the balance between necessary paperwork and outright indignity?
By way of answer, Sitlani cleverly plays on the similarity between the term “PR” and the Hindi word Pyaar, meaning love. The play suggests that the process of immigration can become a journey of rejection and waiting that feels as though it consumes a lifetime. Poduval and Sitlani teach us about what promises from the state and promises to each other look like – and how when one disappoints, the other must hold firm.
An IMM-Permanent Resident ultimately stands as a witty and deeply affecting exploration of identity, the immigrant experience, and love. And that is the lesson I hope we all take from this wholly original and deeply enjoyable work: that we find our true home in our love. Not in the places we go to or leave behind, but in the hearts we hold close.
An IMM-Permanent Resident runs until March 22, 2026 at Factory Theatre in Toronto. Find tickets and more information at factorytheatre.ca.
© Hafsa Hoosaney, Sesaya Arts Magazine 2026
