Kim’s Convenience takes an unusual route to HOME in Manchester. Beginning life as a stage play which later formed the basis for a TV series, it now returns to the stage.
The initial impression upon entering the theatre is that Mona Camille’s stage set, a meticulous reconstruction of a crowded corner shop, must have taken ages to stock with the colourful range of products. The presence of signs in French is a hint that events take place in the soon-to-be 51st State: Canada.
Owner of the family run convenience store Kim (also known as Appa or ‘Father’) is proud of his Korean origins, being able to list key events from memory. He holds a grudge against Japan for colonising his country and considers anyone who owns a Japanese car guilty by association. When alone, he and his wife Umma (Candace Leung) converse in Korean.
Kim (James Yi) has come to regard his store as an expression of his identity and would like to use it to found a dynasty. However, he has been estranged from his son Jung (Daniel Phung) since a violent incident some years ago, and his daughter Janet (Caroline Donica) is Westernised and more interested in pursuing a career in photography than running the store. Kim has to consider, therefore, whether to accept an offer for the store from Walmart and retire with good grace.
It is easy to see why Kim’s Convenience was considered suitable for TV transmission. Ins Choi’s script explores controversial concepts in an inoffensive manner. Kim’s claim to be able to identify shoplifters (his process being based upon race, gender and sexual identity) pokes fun at the ridiculous nature of racism and prejudice.
A sequence of Kim and his son Jung engaging in a quiz on Korean events seems to go on too long, until it becomes clear the purpose is to set the scene for Jung to acknowledge his life has not turned out as planned. The deliberate pacing ensures no ideas are overlooked—the play opens and closes on the same activities to suggest a torch has been passed.
Director Esther Jun mixes the artificial with the authentic. Kim is a larger-than-life character, suitable for a sitcom, irascible and stubborn and unrealistically able to disable offenders with Kung Fu moves. Yet, realistically, when husband and wife are alone, they address each other in Korean without surtitles to guide the audience. The bridge-building meeting between Umma and her estranged son takes place, appropriately, in a church.
The understated man of the match is Andrew Gichigi who takes on every non-Korean role in the play. Although author Ins Choi describes the play as a “love letter to his parents and all first-generation immigrants who now call Canada home’’, many of the themes—specifically a parent’s plans and hopes for his children’s future—are universal. The regular comic confrontations between Kim and daughter Janet are the means by which the themes are articulated. Caroline Donica provides a marvellous comic turn portraying Janet’s exasperation and embarrassment to great effect. This is particularly the case in the disquieting sequence where Kim insists Janet use his process entitled ‘Steal or No Steal’ to spot shoplifters and exposes casual racism / body shaming / you name it.
Kim’s Convenience is a modest play exploring big ideas in an entertaining manner.