STAGE WEST: "Kim's Convenience" at the Old Globe Theatre

Left to right: Brandon McKnight, Ins Choi and Kelly J. Seo in "Kim's Convenience." Photo by Dahlia Katz

            Half the fun – maybe more than half the fun – of watching the sitcom “Kim’s Convenience” is the interplay between blunt and crusty store owner Appa (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) and daughter Janet (Andrea Bang), ever exasperated by her dad’s bluntness and crustiness.
            Happily, that interplay is very much intact in the play on which the Canadian TV situation comedy, which ran from 2016-2021, was based. In a touring production at the Old Globe presented by Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre Company and Adam Blanshay Productions in association with American Conservatory Theater, the Appa-Janet relationship is central to the first half of the 85-minute production. Janet’s portrayed by Kelly J. Seo, with “Kim’s Convenience” author, playwright/actor Ins Choi, as Appa.
            For Choi this is an artistic turnabout. When “Kim’s Convenience” debuted in 2011 at the Toronto Fringe, the South Korean-born Canadian Choi played the part of Appa’s estranged son, Jung. Fifteen years later, he’s aged into the role of the father whose life is his family (wife Umma and daughter Janet, son Jung having fled the household years before) and his little store in a Toronto neighborhood about to be swamped by condos and, horrors, a Walmart.
            I was aware during the years that I watched episodes of the “Kim’s Convenience” sitcom on Netflix that it was based on a play, but until opening night at the Globe I’d never seen it. I recognized in the script situations I’d first seen on TV, such as Appa railing against an illegally parked car outside his store or explaining to an aghast Janet how to recognize whether a customer was a potential “stealer” or not.
            Because the play is a completely contained narrative and not episodic, however, it does possess an arc, and it’s essentially a tale of reconciliation: Appa reconciling himself to the fact that his 30-year-old daughter is not going to take over his store when he passes and that she deserves a life of her own; and reconciling with the son long missing from the family. Not giving anything away there – we can see this coming from the first time we meet an unhappy Jung (Ryan Jinn) in a church confiding in his mother (Esther Chung).
            There’s more tenderness in the stage play, too, of the kind that families seeking and finding understanding produces. Truly, everyone in the story is someone to root for: Appa, a survivor in spite of his grouchiness and political incorrectness; wife Umma, who is strong and supportive of all; Janet, whose devotion and duty deserve liberation and love; Jung, who seems sincere and humbled by the pains of the past; and the Toronto policeman, Alex (Brandon McKnight), who falls quickly and hard for Janet.
            If there’s an issue with the play it’s that the reconciliations happen too fast. I would have preferred a two-act play with intermission and the inference of more time having passed before all seems well. Turn “Kim’s Convenience” into a television series? Oh, right, that already happened.
            Directed by Weyni Mengesha of Soulpepper Theatre, the production is nonetheless seamlessly executed and emotionally immersive. I just wanted more.
            The design team led by Joanne Yu has created a highly detailed convenience store onstage, with every quick-stop grocery item, beverage, sweepstakes ticket and even bound newspapers (this IS set in 2011, remember) bright, shiny and for sale from old Mr. Kim. You can reach out and touch the energy drinks and chips.
            Obviously, Ins Choi is the anchor of this production. Some of his finest moments even come when he’s alone in his store – making himself coffee and singing to himself at the outset, or preoccupied by thought as he marks prices on his merchandise, or looking out the window for illegally parked cars … or for the son he’s lost.
            I don’t patronize convenience stores very often, but if ever I find myself again in a family-run place like Mr. Kim’s, I’m pretty sure I’ll wonder about the folks that run it, even if just for a moment or two.
            “Kim’s Convenience” runs through June 14 at the Old Globe in Balboa Park