Review: (Vancouver / Theatre) Kim's Convenience

Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Andre Sills (photo by Bruce Monk)

“Corner store comedy” balances humour, family drama and culture clash
Kim’s Convenience a familiar microcosm of immigrant experience in Canada
by Chris Lane

Kim’s Convenience is quintessentially Canadian, about a Korean couple in a multicultural Toronto neighbourhood overrun by condos.

It’s a classic immigrant story of a new arrival opening up a business and working long hours running it with the help of his wife and two children. The kids were born in Canada, so the play lays bare the within-family cultural clashes that arise between immigrant parents and their Canadian-born children – and how much the two generations can learn from one another.

A developer is pushing hard to buy Kim’s Convenience, but Mr. Kim won’t allow his customers to lose their shop, and is loath to see his legacy reduced to rubble. He wants his daughter, Janet, to take over; at 30, she has yet to leave the nest, and he’s worried she’s wasting the opportunities they gave her on a photography career. To him, it’s a matter of giving back after all that he gave her; to her, it should be her life and her own choices.

Review: (Ottawa) Kim's Convenience

Jean Yoon, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (photo by Cylla von Tiedemann)

Father Knows Best (Korean Style)
by Jim Murchison

The set for Kim's Convenience is a very authentic looking convenience store. Designer Ken MacKenzie has quite meticulously placed all the details there from the aisles and the well stocked shelves, the overhanging fluorescent light boxes, the register and of course the open and closed sign hanging from the window by the door. The remount has been directed by Albert Schulz with original direction by Weyni Mengesha. What has been added or subtracted in  this production is not possible for me to determine, but the balance is good and the play has honesty and truth that captures the essence of family dynamic.

The patriarch proprietor Appa Kim is played with stoic assurance by Paul Sun-Hyung Lee. The comic interplay because of broken English and the steadfast determination to be right at all times is deftly played. It is clear that the audience relates to the father figure that believes any manner of doubt is weakness and tough love means aikido.

Review: (Toronto) Kim's Convenience

Jean Yoon & Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann)

Soulpepper draws from the Academy for Kim

Waiting pays off

by Beat Rice

I cannot recall the last time I was this excited to see a play. While I was in the house I noticed I was sitting forward on the edge of my seat. Maybe it’s the fact that I lined up for 2 hours in the sun for the same play during the Fringe festival this Summer and still did not get in to see it. But the last several months have been worth the wait. Ins Choi’s fully realized production tells a story of the Kims; a Korean-Canadian family living in Toronto. Appa, or Mr. Kim, works and owns a convenience store in Regent Park. I don’t want to give away the story but if family and Toronto have a place in your heart, and you want to see something funny and touching, you must see Kim’s Convenience.