For those late to the party, which I confess I am, Kim’s Convenience is a 2011 play by Ins Choi which was developed into a smash Netflix series in 2016 and ran for five years. It returned as a touring play and has finally reached our shores, currently at the Oxford Playhouse. And it’s rather good.
The titular Kim is a Korean immigrant, affectionately known as Uppa (played by James Yi), who runs his own brightly coloured convenience store somewhere in Toronto.
And, like a lot of men in their mid-fifties, he is proud, stubborn, opinionated and not particularly politically-correct, all of which are hilariously demonstrated when he tries to teach his long-suffering daughter Janet (Caroline Donica) his own personal guide to spotting potential shoplifters according clothes, colour of skin and body-shape.
When poor Janet is not being readied to take over the family business, which she is loathe to do, she is being pushed towards marriage by her well-intentioned yet meddling mother (Candace Leung). Serious themes then, of racial-stereotyping and family tensions, wrapped in a delicate humour, allowing each member of the family, including Kim’s estranged son Jung (Daniel Phung), to be given a fair hearing on how life should be lived and the opportunity to redeem themselves.
When this play isn’t laugh-out-loud funny, it’s very moving and when it’s not moving, it’s thought provoking. On occasions it gets close to being all three at once.
Special praise should be heaped on Appa’s Korean accent, which so deliciously mangles his English that it almost becomes a character in its own right – it’s hard not to chortle at ‘peanuts’ becoming ‘penis’.
And a nod to actor Andrew Gichigi, who takes on the roles of all the different customers who then have their own comical accents that Appa ironically finds confusing.
Kim’s Convenience then achieves that rare feat of successfully tackling contentious issues with lashings of humour while all the time leaving it to the audience to make up our own minds – an understated success.
Edward Bliss
KIM’S CONVENIENCE is at Oxford Playhouse until Saturday May 17. Book here https://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/events/kims-convenience
