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You might have heard of ‘Kim’s Convenience’ as a Netflix sitcom. But, before the five-season run of the show about a Korean Canadian family who run a convenience store, there was Ins Choi’s original stage drama, which took the Toronto Fringe by storm when it premiered there in 2011.
Now at the Park Theatre for its European premiere with Choi himself starring as shop owner Appa, it is produced with a glossy, if slightly odd cinematic quality, almost as if were made to be performed to a laughing live studio audience.
Partly this is down to Mona Camille’s forensic corner shop set design, which stacks the shelves of the eponymous shop with ramen packets, Korean crisps and containers of kimchi. Drink fridges glow with a luminescent buzz and the walls are accessorised with phone sim posters and brand advert stickers: it is such a graphic replica you almost feel like you could wander in and buy something.
The shop is the beating heart of Choi’s family comedy which offers a slice of a life of generational conflict between a father and his two children, as well as issues surrounding the immigrant experience and subtle cultural clashes. More than simply being a means to make money, the store is a base that roots this family into its community. Both of Appa’s grown-up children – Janet (Jennifer Kim) and Jung (Brioan Law) – worked there during their youths, spending summers pricing snacks and covering shifts for their parents. As adults though, it is a push-and-pull struggle to find their way: Janet is an aspiring photographer while Jung is estranged from his family after a fight with his father in his teenage years.
With so much household conflict, the resolve veers into the mushy realms of the sentimental. But, with Choi himself taking on the role of Appa, it is difficult not to take delight in the conversation on the way. Playing him entirely straight-faced, Choi draws out maximum humour from Appa’s direct speech and enthusiasm for attacking his punters with martial arts. Directed by Esther Jun – who played Janet in the original production – it tingles with photo-realistic authenticity.
Fans of the TV show will notice scenes from the series – Janet’s romance with bad school boy turned cop Alex (Miles Mitchell) is a focal point – while Appa’s hatred of Japan adds prickly hilarity to a script that feels like it could have been lifted from inside a similar shop’s walls. There’s one recognisable vignette after another, but with so many echoes, the play feels more like a companion piece to the TV version than a differently focused beast.
No matter though, because ‘Kim’s Convenience’ is still boundary-pushing in representation and content. At its best sublimely funny and neatly stitched, it is a satisfying peer into the lives of others.