The National Arts Centre transformed an OC Transpo bus shelter into a convenience store pop-up to promote Kim’s Convenience.
Theatregoers will get a glimpse of immigrant life with the award-winning comedy Kim’s Convenience, which plays at the National Arts Centre until Feb. 8.
Centred on a Korean-owned convenience store in Toronto, the performance explores generational conflict and cultural adjustment through the lens of an immigrant family.
“I can tell you that when I saw it, I was moved to tears, both from laughing and a piercing of the heart,” says Jillian Keiley, artistic director of the NAC. “It’s a show that makes you love people.”
Main character Mr. Kim is a stubborn patriarch on the verge of retirement, but his children, estranged son Jung and modern girl Janet, are uninterested in running the family business. Kim must decide if he should sell the store or keep it.
Korean-Canadian author Ins Choi draws on his own experience to lend authenticity to the play. Jung, the part Choi plays in the production, is loosely based on himself.
The performance was first created as a vignette in 2005 under the fu-GEN Asian-Canadian Theatre Company. Choi says he wrote the play in part to give stage time to Asian actors.
“I was writing a play with Asians so I could hire Asians,” he says. “Not only that, but I could write myself a job.”
After opening to a full house at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2011, the play was picked up by the Toronto-based Soulpepper theatre company.
“It is refreshing to experience a unique retelling of a very Canadian story with heart and humour,” says Leslie Lester, the executive director of Soulpepper.
The larger company quickly published the script and put together an eight-city national tour, which includes the NAC performance. “I think Soulpepper gave Kim’s Convenience the artistic credibility it deserved,” says Lester.
Since its remounting, the play has won multiple awards, including Best Canadian Play from the Toronto Theatre Critics in 2012.
This success drew the NAC to the play, says Keiley. “Our mission is to showcase the very best that we see in Canada,” she explains. “Kim’s Convenience is simply a wonderful show.”
Keiley says the play addresses the universal experience of family conflict and moving to a new place. “The show speaks to humanity, to family, to love,” she explains. “There’s no racial or cultural difference in that.”
Choi says he was surprised by the universal appeal at first. Audiences of all backgrounds laughed and cried with the play, and Choi says he wasn’t sure why. “Then, it dawned on me that Canada is made up of immigrants,” he explains. “We are all immigrants and that’s what people can relate with, even if it’s not a recent or immediate experience.”
There will also be a round table discussion about Kim’s Convenience with Keiley and two other special guests. The event takes place Jan. 25 at 12:45 p.m. in the NAC Salon.
Choi says he hopes the audience will view immigrants differently after attending the play.
“I would like them to see that owner behind the counter at the convenience store they frequent,” he says. “There’s a story behind that counter, a story worth listening to, paying attention to, and relating to.”