Park Theatre – until 10 February
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
4****
The European premiere of Kim’s Convenience is long overdue, with Ins Choi’s 2011 play and the Netflix series it inspired great successes. Choi’s tragicomic love letter to first-generation immigrants is based on his own early life, living above his uncle’s convenience store in Toronto. Choi plays the elder Mr Kim in this production, having originated the role of his son.
As you wait for the play to begin, spotting the items on the shelves of Mona Camille’s detailed set is a delight, and Choi’s long, non-verbal entrance as Mr Kim establishes the character immediately as he goes about his morning routine opening the store and keeping an eye on the neighbourhood. Regent Park is beginning to be gentrified, but Kim’s unbending vision of his children carrying on his legacy in the store makes selling to developers out of the question.
With Kim’s father’s memories of living under Japanese rule and then the Korean War and his parents coming to Canada for a better life for their children, the Western attitudes of Kim’s children confuse and anger him. The tension between generations and cultures is at the heart of the family comedy, with Kim’s overbearing attitude frustrating and alienating his children. Kim’s black and white view of the world – which his daughter sees as racist and misogynistic – is very much a product of his family’s trauma, and Choi writes and delivers these lines with a smart rawness and daughter Janet (Jennifer Kim) is there to correct him. Among the fatherly concern and humour, there is an undercurrent of anger and cruelty in Kim’s interactions with Janet, and hints about Kim’s estranged son Jung (Brian Law) are dropped until he finally appears as he meets his mother (Namju Go) at church. Miles Mitchell plays a variety of neighbourhood characters, the highlight being his flirting with Janet and consequent interrogation by Kim.
The cast are all excellent and have wonderful chemistry, with even the quietest moments effortlessly revealing so much about their characters and their relationships with a gentle humour throughout that seamlessly veers from high physicality to melancholy. Director Esther Chun paces the story wonderfully, allowing quieter scenes to hit before moving on, and Kim’s realisation that his children are more important to him than his store is played beautifully by Choi, completely convincing as a man full of love and shame trying to make amends.
Charming and full of heart, Kim’s Convenience is not to be missed.