Playwright Ins Choi calls it a ‘love letter to my Appa and Umma’ who emigrated from Korea to Canada in the 70s, and its UK rendition remains to be funny and heart-warming
It’s a play that inspired a Netflix series. Not the other way around. After its debut over a decade ago, Kim’s Convenience makes its European premier at Finsbury Park’s Park Theatre. Playwright Ines Choi calls it a ‘love letter to my Apppa and Umma’ who emigrated from Korea to Canada in the 70s, and it’s UK rendition remains to be funny, heart-warming and meaningful.
The cast and crew are made up of veterans. Playwright Choi plays the hardworking immigrant protagonist Appa; Esher Jun originated the role of his second-generation assimilated daughter Janet in its original fringe production, and now steps off stage to take up her role as director. It sets the challenge of making the play feel fresh and relevant to an audience all these years later, and this production accepts and fulfils that challenge.
Checked linoleum floors, shelves stuffed with crisps and the fridges with drinks. The Park Theatre audience are encouraged to grab a snack (metaphorically) and watch; it’s opening time at Kim’s Convenience Store, in Toronto, Canada. It’s a store owned by Appa, an old man who lives above the shop with his wife and grown-up daughter. Quirky, funny and streetwise, Appa is a dedicated worker, father and husband. But with a volatile temper, an estranged son, a quickly transforming neighbourhood and a daughter fed up with her father’s outdated ways, drama quickly ensues.
Choi as writer and performer sees him embody the wise, and yet naive Appa of the family. Fiercely proud of his history, Choi delivers the quick jokes brilliantly (but it would be a bit of a surprise if he couldn’t deliver the punch lines he wrote). Jennifer Kim as the grown-up daughter, 30 and single, a photographer, provides an excellent balance. She bears the frustrations of a second-generation child with effortless chemistry with Choi. No doubt director Esther Jun had a hand nurturing this dynamic being so familiar with its role.
The jokes are effective, if pretty cheap; jabs about stereotypical rivalries between Japanese and Koreans, assumptions about who is going to shoplift and miscommunications based on a thick Korean accent. But the laughs are genuine and make the show hugely compelling, and the excellently placed emotional moments complement the easy laughs well.
The productions value comes from this balance of comedy with a poignant exploration of family dynamics and expectations. Jennifer Kim’s Janet pushes past generic child-like annoyances with parents into deep and understandable resentment at being used as an unpaid worker in the store. She is a at war with her father, whose years of dedicated hard work and sacrifices built a store that is representative of his achievements, which is in opposition to her desire for agency as a 21st century Canadian-Korean. At the same time, her desperation for approval and attention from her father is raw and keenly felt. It’s simple and poignant, a familiar dynamic to many, skilfully portrayed.
Miles Mitchell is an excellent complement to Jennifer Kim as her love interest narrative, even if the set-up is a little generic and the conclusion surprisingly fast. Indeed, the resolution between father and estranged son Jung, an understated and compelling performance by Brain Law, ties up suspiciously neatly (and quickly). But even if questions remain unanswered the overall impact is heart-warming, a testament to the cast’s hard work. It’s feel-good, if a little sappy, but with just enough humanity to push the production into something meaningful.