Live and in person at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, Ont. A Soulpepper Production in association with American Conservatory Theater and Adam Blanshay Productions. Playing until March 2, 2025.
Written by Ins Choi.
Directed by Weyni Mengesha.
Set by Joanna Yu.
Costumes by Ming Wong
Lighting by Wen-Ling Liao.
Sound and original music by Fan Zhang
Video/projections designer, Nicole Eun-ju Bell
Cast: Ins Choi
Esther Chung
Ryan Jinn
Brandon McKnight
Kelly Seo
A moving, funny, beautifully realize production that celebrates the hopes, dreams, travails and humour of the immigrant experience, in this case the Korean immigrant experience, but it could be the experience of anyone from another country who comes to Canada seeking a better life.
The Story. The charmed life of KIM’S CONVENIENCE continues. Ins Choi’s beautifully written play ran at the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival where it won the Best New Play Award, the Patron’s Pick and one of the Best of the Fringe spots. It then played at Soulpepper with Weyni Mengesha repeating her work as director. Since then it was made into a successful CBC series; picked up by NETFLIX; played in London England and in the spring will tour to several cities in the U.K. Now KIM’S CONVENIENCE comes home again to Soulpepper with Weyni Mengesha directing again.
Mr. Kim (listed as “Appa” in the programme) and his family have owned and run a convenience store in Regent’s Park since they arrived in Canada years before. Mr. Kim knows his customers. He knows about their families and they know his.
The area is set to be re-developed and Mr. Kim is faced with being bought out or passing the store to his daughter Janet. She doesn’t want it. She is a trained photographer and wants to lead her own life. There is a son name Jung who left years before when he and his father had a violent argument. Jung sees his mother secretly in church.
The Production. Joanna Yu’s set of the convenience store approximates what it would look like. There is a LOTTO 649 poster high up on a wall; there is a front counter with gum and mints, and various shelves with chips, nuts, a cooler with cans of soft drinks. Behind the counter is a tea kettle to boil water so Mr. Kim can have his morning coffee and way too much sugar to be healthy.
At the top of the show, a montage of photographs of many and various convenience store owners flashes across the back wall that looks like the apartments that might be above the store. This provides a mosaic of immigrant faces who have owned/worked in a convenience store. There is another scene with projections on the top of the wall to show family photos. I think this is a lovely idea of director Weyni Mengesha and Nicole Eun-Ju Bell, the video/projection designer, but these inclusions just seemed fussy and distracting. I appreciate this is another touch to add to the idea of the immigrant experience; I just think it’s unnecessary.
Mr. Kim (Ins Choi) ambles out from the apartment upstairs, where he, his wife and Janet live. He moves slowly—it is 7:00 am. He wears baggy jeans, sandals over socks, a work shirt and a puffy vest. He unlocks the front door; turns the sign to “open” and begins his day. This usually means calling the police to report a Japanese car illegally parked in the ‘no parking’ zone. Mr. Kim has carried a grudge towards the Japanese since they invaded Korea more than 100 years before.
Costumers come and go; Mr. Kim greets them all with a guarded friendliness: Mr. Lee (a Black man with a Korean name), Rich, Alex—a cop—and Mike, all played with precise detail by Brandon McKnight. Mr. Kim’s daughter Janet (Kelly Seo) rushes through on her way out to take photographs—she is a professional photographer. She and Mr. Kim have a loving but bristling relationship. Kelly Seo as Janet stands up to her father with the same stubbornness he has. She is quietly forceful, determined, confident in her abilities and her right to express her opinion.
Mr. Kim is an angry, obstreperous, prejudiced man. He tells Janet who is likely to steal from the store and who is not based on their ethnicity. Janet is horrified. Janet tries to reason with this bull-headed philosophy. Sometimes she wins and sometimes she doesn’t.
Mrs. Kim (Esther Chung), referred to as “Umma” in the programme, scurries through on her way to church. She and Mr. Kim converse in Korean. No translation is necessary. This is a long-married, loving couple who know that family is everything. Ryan Jinn as Jung, the estranged son, gives an aching performance of a young man who is lost and does not know where his place in the world is. He hates his job renting cars and thinks longingly of going home.
Finally, there is Ins Choi as Mr. Kim. I’ve seen him play Jung in the original production at the Fringe years ago. But now he has ‘grown’ into the role of Mr. Kim (Appa). I’ve seen him play this part in at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario, the Park Theatre in London, England last year and now back at Soulpepper. Ins Choi goes from strength to strength in the part. He is proud, angry, stubborn and bend-over-funny because of his turns of phrase and his outlook on life. Ins Choi as Mr. Kim is also tender, loving in a gruff way, and quick to forgive and not hold a grudge. At times he looks off in the distance in a wistful way and it’s Ins Choi’s ability as an actor that he makes the audience see what he is seeing.
Director Weyni Mengesha directs with a sure hand that keeps the balance between the irascible Mr. Kim and the more touching, emotional moments. There is a lot that is moving about the play but Mengesha doesn’t go for the easy emotionally manipulative stuff. This is a production that is nuanced, full of Mr. Kim’s outbursts, and has room for forgiveness and love.
Comment. In his program note, Ins Choi says that KIM’S CONVENIENCE is his love-letter to his immigrant parents and all 1st generation immigrants who came to Canada for a better life. It’s a beautiful tribute told with poignancy, humour and grace. See this play.
A Soulpepper Production in association with American Conservatory Theater and Adam Blanshay Productions.
Playing until March 2, 2025.
Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes (no intermission).
www.soulpepper.ca
{ 0 comments }