“KIM'S CONVENIENCE”

 The Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park is currently mounting Ins Choi’s award winning “Kim’s Convenience”, a one act, 85 minute comedy-drama about family values, economics, changing attitudes, immigration, and overt prejudice with laugh line humor thrown in.  

Cho’s award winning play soon morphed into a T.V. sit-com and can still be seen on Netflix. It first went to Broadway and then to the U.K. It is set in Toronto where “Kim’s Convenience” is on a collision course with big box stores, high rising condos, rising prices and a shrinking customer base.

Brandon McKnight, Ins Choi and Kelly J. Seo

As an aside, Appa (or father) is on his own collision course with his daughter Janet (Kelly J. Seo), who wants to be a photographer and not take over Kim’s. While she does help out now and then, running the convenience store  is not in her future.   That doesn’t stop Appa from trying to school her in what to look for in the folks that come into the store as he accuses a black shopper of being a shoplifter.  

 Playing a smaller role, Umma (Esther Chung) who worries about the tension between Appa and Janet, is more interested in church functions.  It is in the church that she has a chance meeting with their estranged  son Jung (Ryan Jinn), whom we later learn, is a wiz  on Korean history and other notable dates Appa taught him when he was younger and living at home. 

Ins Choi and Esther Chung

Playwright Choi, who also plays Appa is both curmudgeon and stubborn, exasperating and funny, clueless and sharp, and is blatantly prejudice . He is at the center of this Korean family saga. 

Kelly J. Seo’s Janet brings out a brutally angry side criticizing her Appa but for the most part her interactions with her ‘gentleman caller’,  the local police officer (Brandon McKnight who plays all the other male characters) is worth a few laughs. 

Ins Choi

Ryan Jinn is excellent as their son Jung, especially after we get to really have an insight into him and his role in the family and family business. 

Weyni Mengesha directs with an eye on the laugh lines and moves right along through the laugh lines, making it difficult to hear the following dialogue. 

Joanna Yu’s set design is filled with just about anything and everything one can purchase in a convenient store. Wen-Ling Liao is credited for the lighting, Nicole Enu-JuBell, the video and projections, Ming Wong, costumes and David S. Franklin is production stage manager. 

I tried watching “Kim’s Convenient” on Netflix, but nothing I saw tickled my funny bone, so off to the next show. 

Brandon McKnight and Kelly J. Seo

Growing up my Dad had a market with groceries and cold cuts. I used to work there after school. The only lesson he ever taught me was not to interfere when he was in the middle of making a deal I thought he didn't understand. 'Nuff said!

Now a freeway runs through a once thriving business district where individual and specialized markets one thrived. I guess it’s the way of the world. 

Sigh!

See you at the theatre.

Enjoy

When:  Through Wednesday. Opens Thursday and runs through June 14. 7 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays

Where: Old Globe Theatre, Balboa Park

Photo:  Dahlia Katz

Tickets: $40 and up

Phone: 619-234-5623

Online: theoldglobe.org