Kim’s Convenience

Play (2011)
by Ins Choi
Directed by Weyni Mengesha
Huntington Theatre Company
Adam Blanshay Productions presents the Soulpepper Theatre Company production in association with American Conservatory Theater
Boston Center for the Arts
South End, Boston
November 6-30, 2025

With Ins Choi (Appa), Kelly J. Seo (Janet), Esther Chung (Umma), Frank Chung (Jung), Brandon McKnight (Rich, Alex, Mr. Lee, Mike)

Appa (Ins Choi) is the proprietor of a convenience store in Toronto, but it seems much more than that. He runs it with his wife, Umma (Esther Chung), with their smart and independent-minded daughter Janet (Kelly J. Seo) close by. The family lives above the store, so there are a lot of comings and goings, even though Appa is the primary presence behind the store counter. Appa and Umma also have a son, Jung (Frank Chung), but he and Appa have had some tough times and have not spoken for awhile. Jung has had some trouble with the law, as well, so he is facing challenges. We do get a moment to catch Umma with Jung and get to see that he is now the father of a young child and has found employment at a car rental agency.

Meanwhile, Janet is pursuing her early ambitions as a photographer, and though Appa appeals to her to take over the store, Janet clearly demurs. Alas, Jung is not on the scene and so is not considered a candidate for that role. To make things even more complicated, Mr. Lee (Brandon McKnight), a well-to-do acquaintance of Appa’s, comes to offer him a sizeable sum for the store, but Appa refuses it, even though Umma is shocked by the size of the offer and thinks it might be a good deal. But Appa says that his whole life is wrapped up in the store and he wants to pass it on to family. Additionally, there are rumblings about redevelopment in the neighborhood, and the question of whether the store will survive at all comes into play.

As it happens, Alex (Brandon McKnight, as well), a local cop, enters the scene. He is an old friend of Jung’s and Janet has had a crush on him for a long time. How this develops, what happens to the store, and what becomes of Jung all get resolved. (If you want, you can read about that in the spoilers section below.)

As it happened, I was in Seattle in early March, 2020 when the COVID pandemic took the first US deaths there. In one day, normal life turned into lockdown and my host entertained me by introducing me to the television series of Kim’s Convenience and we wound up binging, to great delight, through several seasons in a couple of days. When I returned to Boston, that series became a favorite of mine for the next several years (even though the series stopping filming in 2021 after its fifth season). The characters of Appa, Umma, Jung and Janet remained vivid and entertaining, with, Appa played by Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, as a focal and hilarious presence.

What a total delight it was to discover this play by Ins Choi on which this wonderful television series is based, and, even more, to experience Ins Choi in the title role. This is an exhilarating and wonderfully acted and realized production at the Huntington Theatre, and Choi is, in a word, sublime.

The play itself is charming and well put together. There are, of course, not as many ins and outs and narrative developments as there are in the TV series, but the main themes rise up significantly and, in the midst of almost constant hilarity provided by the smart script and by Ins Choi’s inimitably forceful and charming portrayal, there is quite a bit of drama. What happens to the store, what happens to Janet, what happens to Jung all weigh on Appa, but that does not stop him from being out-of-this-world funny.

There is a little bit of Archie Bunker (the father in the iconic television series All in the Family (1971-1979) in Appa’s character – unremittingly set in his stances and undeniably expressive about them. A fabulous scene in the play features a character named Rich (brought to life by the omnipresent and highly versatile Brandon McKnight, who plays all the black characters), comes into the store and Appa claims that he has shoplifted a few things. When Rich comes to the counter and pays Appa, Appa tells Rich he will give Rich his change if Rich returns the stuff he has stolen. Of course, Rich denies it, and Janet gets up in arms about Appa unfairly accusing Rich, until, when Appa, a martial-arts expert, grabs Rich’s arm and forces him to empty his pockets, reveals that he has stolen things. This leads to one of the funniest scenes in the play in which Appa, after Rich has departed, describes to Janet in great detail, all the different kinds of characters, black, white, fat, thin, women, men – with different colors of shoes and whatever else – mark them as shoplifters or not. He’s clearly full of stereotypes and easy prejudices, but there is something pitch perfect about the speech, and Ins Choi delivers it with an uncanny spontaneity that makes one roar with delight at the combination of his character’s bluntness and astuteness.

In this play, the roles of Umma and of Jung are less pronounced than they are in the TV series, but they add important balance. As Umma, Esther Chung does a fine and serviceable job, and Frank Chung (steppng in for Ryan Jinn) does a good job of conveying his troubled, but resuscitating character, Jung.

Much of the active stage time consists of banter between Janet and Appa and Kelly Seo, as Janet, does a very good job of embodying the character who, full of spice and spine, echoes her father brilliantly. She and Brandon McKnight (as Alex) bring heat to the stage with their incipient attraction and add to the complex emotional landscape which Appa then has to navigate.

With this fine support, the show really belongs to Ins Choi, and it is a memorable opportunity to see him perform this role. He does it with gusto and with spontaneous charm, and lights up the stage with a combination of earnestness, forthrightness, stiff-necked rigidity and a good bit of stereotypical thinking. He is a marvel to watch, and the laughs keep coming.

– BADMan (aka Charles Munitz)