Don’t think because it twinkles, it can’t cut. Or that a guessable happy ending rules out revelations. Kim’s Convenience disarms with darting charm, then gently nudges audiences to look at their preconceptions.
This tickety-boo production – bright and light on its feet – directed by Esther Jun is an unusual mixture of the familiar and the new. Ins Choi’s debut play about a Canadian-Korean family and their corner shop in Toronto was first seen 13 years ago at the Toronto fringe; snapped up by Netflix, it ran for five seasons. Choi has tweaked it back on to the stage for its European premiere. He himself takes – with unruffled authority – the role of Appa, paterfamilias and proprietor, first-generation immigrant, proud entrepreneur. In the first stage version, Jun played the part of the daughter who is breaking away from her parents and their business (Janet is “single, ready to mingle”). Jennifer Kim plays Janet at the pocket-sized Park: spot-on as a 30-year-old teenager, both vivacious and anxious.
