Kim's Convenience
From Stage to Five Seasons on Netflix and Back
By: Victor Cordell - Sep 26, 2025
Immigrants tend to cluster in more ways than one. Not only do they favor certain cities, they gravitate toward certain communities within a city. Often, they even concentrate on the same occupation or type of entrepreneurship. Back in the day, when you saw New Yorkers carrying coffee in paper cups, they were most frequently identical blue with white artwork cups, because many of the city’s diners were owned by Greek immigrants. Similarly, Pakistanis seemed to dominate newsstands. Jews came to corner the “rag trade” in New York’s Garment District. And so it goes.
In contemporary times, Korean immigrants appear more comfortable than most investing in mini-marts, even in dodgy neighborhoods. So much so, that when the Kim of this review wanted to open a store, his favorite store names with Kim in the title were already taken. So begins the story of Kim’s Convenience, a typical small food and sundries market in Toronto.
The central figure of our story is known as Appa – not a real name, but Korean for dad. He’s had a signature immigrant experience. He’s worked hard for decades. But despite his sacrifices, which included giving up his career as a teacher in Korea, his son abandoned the family under a cloud. Meanwhile, his 30-year-old daughter Janet (played by a light but bright Kelly Seo) is unmarried and pursuing a career that Appa doesn’t appreciate or approve – photography.
The story takes place in the authentic looking convenience store. The action is hilarious from beginning to end with occasional respite for screaming arguments, pathos, and resulting teary eyes for some patrons. All of the laughs are thanks to playwright Ins Choi, and most of them are delivered by Appa, also played by Ins Choi.
Remarkably, Choi delivers many flaccid lines in a deadpan manner, but everything seems to hit simply because of his look and his timing. What’s more, his Korean accent is very thick, and surprisingly, most of the audience cuts through the verbal garble and gets the humor. The story even recognizes how challenging his accent is when he has a conversation with a Jamaican immigrant, and neither can understand the other’s English.
Some of the drollery is a bit sophomoric, playing on common Korean mispronunciations in English, where steal becomes ste-e-er. More pointed is when a potential suitor for Janet is present. Suggesting that Janet give the young man some snacks from the shelves as he’s leaving, the father repeatedly makes intended double-entendres in which peanuts sounds like a man’s body part.
The two driving themes of Kim’s Convenience are intertwined, managing the store and managing the family. Of course, the store is the basis for the family’s sustenance, and to Appa, it represents his opportunity to leave a family legacy. But two conditions work against succession. Janet is not the least interested in working the store, and Appa has received an attractive offer to sell.
The depictions in the play carry authenticity partly because of Appa’s complexity and human contradictions. In one incident, he nabs a shoplifter, much to the horror of Janet, as his identification is based on rigid racial profiling, not having actually observed any theft. One of the funniest sequences in the dialog is when he reveals his whole “if-then” schema in which he notes what combinations of race, body type, and apparel determine whether the person is a shoplifter or not.
His list of perpetrators leans heavily toward blacks. Yet when a black man, Alex, (Brandon McKnight in one of his four varied roles) who had known Janet in high school appears and seems attracted to her, Appa is more than welcoming. Later, he even encourages the po-po! (policeman in Korean). He also relishes telling the story of the market in Los Angeles that was protected during riots by a cordon of black patrons who appreciated the generosity of the Korean owner who helped them out when they were in need.
It should be added that Appa’s Korean pride naturally involves inherent dislike for Japanese because of their past colonization and other mistreatment of Koreans. The antipathy extends to guilt by association, like to anyone who owns a Japanese car! He even calls the police when he sees an illegally parked Japanese car, but not any other.
Though set in Canada, this tale will ring true to immigrant families around the world, especially those in which the parents sacrifice so that their children will gain education and easier lives. While laughs dominate the timeline of the play, and some of the issues concerning family and work are superficial, the more resonant ones concern redemption and forgiveness. So there is more than just humor that makes this play compelling.
Incidentally, for those of you who are otherwise unaware and wonder if this show will have legs, Kim’s Convenience first hit the stage in 2011 and then television, first on Canadian TV followed by five seasons on Netflix. So it’s already proven itself with quite a run.
Kim’s Convenience, written by Ins Choi, is produced by American Conservatory Theater, and plays at Toni Rembe Theater, 415 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA through October 19, 2025.