Skip to main content

REVIEW: Kim’s Convenience starring Ins Choi skilfully sews together the past and present

int(97949)
/By / Oct 25, 2023
SHARE

On opening night of Kim’s Convenience, as the Grand Theatre’s red curtains rose up to reveal Julia Kim’s marvellous set design, the crowd promptly erupted into spontaneous applause. The detail and the realism of designer Kim’s store design was truly momentous. Did it look exactly like the set of the CBC TV show many have come to know and love over the years? Not exactly. But it did offer a shockingly delightful likeness to the ordinary Canadian corner store that many of us see as an important marker of our daily lives. Kim’s design hit just the right tone for the play’s opening moments, reminding audiences that our every day is worth celebrating, right down to the last Bounty chocolate bar.

Because Ins Choi’s play has a healthy production history on stages across Canada and a successful run on television as a popular sitcom, finding a unique way of presenting this contemporary classic is a tall task. Ultimately, it’s the two main artists at the helm of the Grand’s production that mark this as an important moment in this play’s production history. Playwright Choi himself takes on the lead role of Appa, the owner-operator of the store. Esther Jun, who played Appa’s artistic daughter Janet in the original production, now leads the team as the play’s talented director. By including Choi and Jun in these new roles, the Grand’s production manages to bring audiences back to this play’s inception and highlight its impressive journey over the years. I love that these choices remind Canadian audiences that theatre created in this country has the potential to cultivate its own lore. 

I was one of the lucky ones who saw the original Toronto Fringe production way back in 2011, and the buzz that year was palpable. I remember getting emails from friends and colleagues with tips about how to try to sneak into the packed, sold out houses at the Randolph Theatre. Now, all these years later, Esther Jun has gone on to become a stage director of some renown and the play’s life beyond the Fringe is the stuff of Canadian theatre legend. I suspect that audiences will pack the Grand to see this well-executed new production.

Choi is radiant as Appa, delivering on the audience’s desire to spend a little time with their favourite world-weary, hard-working immigrant father with a heart of gold. Choi masterfully hits all of the play’s snappy jokes (he did write them after all!), but what stands out is the humanity in his performance. Appa’s emotional vulnerability can sometimes get lost in the laughter of other productions, but Choi ensures this story’s patriarch has a wonderfully complex inner life. That’s the strength in this retelling overall. The extra time the piece takes to slow down the sitcom speed allows for the family’s complexities to emerge. 

It’s been mentioned before but certainly bears repeating in 2023 that Kim’s Convenience is a play with jokes heavily reliant on racial stereotyping. As Jun says in one Grand promotional video, “Kim’s Convenience is a love letter to immigrant parents,” and the play doesn’t shy away from the generational and cultural clashes embedded in their experiences. At times it’s difficult to know whether the audience is laughing with or at the culturally specific quips, but ultimately this production admirably balances out the broad humour with complex human emotions. This is helped by strong performances by Emeka Agada and Kelly J Seo, who find success in performing both the humour and the humanity as the story’s young lovers Alex and Janet. While Appa’s wife Umma and son Jung have very little stage time in the play (in contrast to the sitcom, where they are leading characters), Vicky Kim and Leon Qin capably round out the cast. Jareth Li’s evocative lighting design midway through the story reveals another world hiding in plain sight throughout the rest of the show.

It is in this balance that we also see director Jun’s steady hand. She ensures the jokes land and that the audience gets to see the important moments of growth throughout each character’s journey. In productions such as Little Women and Les Belles Soeurs at Stratford, Jun has revealed a rare talent for getting that difficult balance expected between the past and present just right. Here she manages to both satisfy the original mega-fans and give new audiences something to cheer about. She nurtures the existing love people have for a work’s past life and asks what this work says to audiences in this specific moment in time. 

With a strong production like this, it’s easy to see how Choi’s play has managed to continue entertaining audiences for over ten years. 


Kim’s Convenience runs at the Grand Theatre in London until Saturday, November 4th. Tickets are available here.


Intermission reviews are independent and unrelated to Intermission’s partnered content. Learn more about Intermission’s partnership model here.

Taylor Marie Graham
WRITTEN BY

Taylor Marie Graham

Taylor Marie Graham (she/her) is a Dora nominated writer, theatre artist, and educator living in Cambridge, ON / Haldimand Tract. At the University of Guelph, she holds an MFA in Creative Writing and is currently a Doctoral Candidate writing an analysis of the Blyth Festival Theatre. Both Taylor’s artistic and academic work often explores rural feminisms and the decolonization of bodies in space. www.taylormariegraham.com

LEARN MORE

Comments

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


/
Kelly Wong as Aslan and Élodie Gillett as the White Witch with the cast of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Photo by David Cooper. iPhoto caption: Kelly Wong as Aslan and Élodie Gillett as the White Witch with the cast of 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.' Photo by David Cooper.

REVIEW: Shaw Festival’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe needs a louder roar

Sometimes, theatre transports you to a fantastic new world. Other times, you get a wardrobe full of coats.

By Emily R. Zarevich
Sanctuary Song at Tapestry Opera. iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.

REVIEW: Tapestry Opera’s Sanctuary Song charts an elephant’s tumultuous journey from captivity to liberation

The Dora Award-winning, family-friendly opera has returned to mark the opening of Tapestry's new venue on Yonge Street.

By Nirris Nagendrarajah
Production photo of 'Pride and Prejudice' at the Grand Theatre. iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.

REVIEW: Pride and Prejudice gets a postmodern makeover at London’s Grand Theatre

In spite of some missed opportunities, Pride and Prejudice ends up a lighthearted recontextualization of its source material, which should appease all but the most stolid Janeites.

By Gwen Caughell
Soulpepper's production of Takwahiminana iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.

REVIEW: Takwahiminana explores what healing means when the past never quite lets go

While playwright Matthew MacKenzie’s lyrical storytelling is always a delight, there’s something astringent and detached about Takwahiminana that produces a distancing effect, preventing it from reaching the emotional highs of his other recent work.

By Ilana Lucas
The Grand and Theatre Aquarius' production of Waitress. iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.

REVIEW: Waitress blends retro charm with contemporary flair at Hamilton’s Theatre Aquarius

This co-production with the Grand Theatre stands up to its Broadway counterpart and makes for a truly delightful night out.

By Deanne Kearney
Malachi McCaskill stars as Usher in A Strange Loop at Soulpepper Theatre. iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.

REVIEW: A Strange Loop cycles between audacious spectacle and deeply personal reflection

A Strange Loop challenges the conventions of large-scale musical theatre while carving its radical place in the Broadway canon.

By jonnie lombard