Kim's Convenience has been billed as Soulpepper's “very first original full-length play,” but that's only true if you discount the classical-theatre company’s adaptations and collective creations – which I don’t. Then again, I've never been entirely sure what a “full-length play” is. It brings to mind the children's joke, “How long should a horse's legs be?” (The answer: “Long enough to reach the ground.”)
In any case, many new works of varying lengths have premiered at Soulpepper over the years and, in recent seasons, they have tended to explore and exalt the city of Toronto. Notably, there was Mike Ross's song cycle, Civil Elegies, based on the poetry of Dennis Lee; and Window on Toronto, created by the Soulpepper Academy.
While the latter allowed the audience to peer out at the frenetic city from inside a hot-dog cart, Kim's Convenience, written by former Academy member Ins Choi, turns that set-up inside out, allowing us to spend a day watching what happens inside a convenience store in the gentrifying Regent Park neighbourhood.
Ken MacKenzie's realistic set is instantly recognizable – from the chip racks to the pop fridge, from the sketchy-looking energy drinks on the counter to the cigarette shelves masked by ads.
Choi's play, a promising debut picked up after a sell-out run at the Toronto Fringe Festival, concerns the Korean-Canadian family who runs this shop and lives above it. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee stars as Mr. Kim, a burly proprietor who harbours a deep-seated hatred of the Japanese – and has the police on speed-dial for whenever he spots an illegally parked Toyota. Otherwise, he is idiosyncratically intolerant: While he has no particular problem with blacks, black men wearing jean jackets will always shoplift, he informs his daughter, Janet (a delightful Esther Jun).
Clé Bennett, of TV’s Flashpoint, plays a variety of the store’s black customers, last but not least a charismatic cop named Alex who ends up checking out with Janet.
Then there's Mr. Kim's son, Jung, who disappeared with a wad of cash from the safe 15 years ago in the aftermath of a violent family fight. Played by Choi, Jung still meets up on the sly with his religious mother (Jean Yoon) at church; he now has a new baby, but also a dead-end job, and is wondering whether he can stand to make the same kinds of sacrifices his father did when he immigrated to Canada.
With its prodigal-son storyline and emphasis on the gap between first-generation Canadians and their children, Kim's Convenience owes something to David French's Mercer-family plays. In style, however, it’s closer to a sitcom, with snappy one-liners, light slapstick and intermittent doses of sentimentality.
Specifically, Kim's Convenience reminds me of those socially relevant 1970s comedies produced by Norman Lear – or Canada’s King of Kensington. Come to think of it, you can imagine this being the pilot for a CBC remake: Kim of Regent Park.
The changing face of that neighbourhood – whether it’s gentrification or genuine revitalization depends on your point of view – is an important theme in the play. Condos are going up, threatening to bring chain stores to compete with the Kims. Their church has already been sold to a developer. There are few Korean-Canadians left downtown.
While the world of the show is quite complex and colourful, filled with interesting insights into Korean-Canadian culture, Choi's resolution of the conflicts he sets up is not entirely convincing; problems just sort of evaporate. When father and son face off after an incredible 15 years of silence, it takes them less than 15 minutes to settle the score.
In the end, the relationship between Janet and her father is more dramatically developed: An argument they have, during which they calculate the costs of raising her versus the free labour she has provided to the store, is tremendous.
