In recent years, plays about the immigrant experience have become extremely popular at American theaters. But back in 2011, “Kim’s Convenience” was a boundary-breaker.
Written by Ins Choi and based on his own experience as a Korean-born Canadian, the funny and heartwarming Toronto-born play won multiple awards and was later transformed into a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. sit-com that ran from 2016 to 2021. Now the original play, with Choi starring in the lead role, is on a North American tour that opened Thursday night at The Old Globe.
For fans of the sit-com, which is now streaming on Netflix, the original play version of “Kim’s Convenience” is still very touching and humorous, but it’s darker in content and it’s focused on just a handful of characters. The play also features brief scenes spoken in untranslated Korean and a short video montage of the playwright’s family photographs.
The play is set in Toronto’s racially diverse Regents Park, where the gruff and aging “Appa” (Korean for “Dad”) Kim, is pondering the future of his rundown convenience store. When a real estate investor makes an offer to buy the building so Appa can retire, the news delights his wife, “Umma” (“Mom”), but he would rather keep the business in the family to carry on his legacy. But Appa is estranged from his son, Jung, who ran away more than a decade ago. And his 30-year-old daughter, Janet, wants a different life as a professional photographer.
Ins Choi and Esther Chung in the national touring production of “Kim’s Convenience,” now in production at The Old Globe. (Dahlia Katz)
As in the TV show, Choi’s Appa is a wily curmudgeon who can spot a shoplifter in an instant, is prone to politically incorrect comments, can easily reel off a list of Korean achievements and nurses a lifelong grudge against anything Japanese (due to Japan’s invasion and occupation of Korea in 1904).
Choi isn’t afraid to display Appa’s fury and intolerance, which makes the character’s enlightening and loving moments at the end of the play more moving and powerful.
The fiery Kelly J. Seo is a standout as as the play’s antagonist, Janet, the only character who can stand up to her father’s controlling behavior. She’s a good physical comedian and she shares great chemistry with the multitalented Brandon McKnight, who plays four very different characters in the play, including Alex, a Toronto police officer who Janet has had a a crush on since age 10.
Esther Chung is gentle, warm and wistful as Umma, and Ryan Jinn makes the most of his brief but pivotal role as the anxious, end-of-his-rope Jung.
The production designed by Joanna Yu features a well-stocked, but crumbling convenience store. Ming Wong designed costumes. Wen-Ling Liao designed lighting, Fan Zhang designed sound and original music and Nicole Eun-Ju Bell designed video and projections.
“Kim’s Covenience” runs about 100 minutes and it ends on a melancholy but hopeful note. It’s a touching slice-of-life story that anyone, particularly those from immigrant families, will relate to.
‘Kim’s Convenience’
When: 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Through June 14
Where: Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park, San Diego
Tickets: $44 and up
Phone: 619-234-5623
Online: theoldglobe.org