KIM’S CONVENIENCE at Riverside Studios

★★★

“The performances were a pleasure to watch; each actor showing great nuance and detail in their characterisation”

Ins Choi’s ‘Kim’s Convenience’ returns to London this month at Riverside Studios, with Choi reprising his lead role of Appa. A play that has seen vast success over the years, including a five season television series, following its original performance at Toronto Fringe Festival in 2011. The sitcom feel to the show is strong in this iteration, however, I fear it lets the material itself down.

Appa runs his store ‘Kim’s Convenience’ under seemingly peaceful circumstances, until one day a local corporate businessman offers to buy it – following the announcement of a new Walmart to be built in the area. This man inspires him to come to the decision he wants to retire. The play then follows Appa’s quest to convince one of his unsatisfied children to take over the store.

One of the greatest highlights of this show is the design. Mona Camille provides the audience with an incredibly realistic set of a convenience store – including bright and colourful details of various products on sale including many Korean and Canadian snacks. The lighting (Jonathan Chan) also reflects the just a little bit too bright environment very familiar among retail establishments. The performances were a pleasure to watch; each actor showing great nuance and detail in their characterisation. Miles Mitchell deserves particular praise for his excellence in multi-roling (Rich, Mr Lee, Mike, Alex), with an eclectic mix of accents and personas on display. Choi has a clear and colourful understanding of the character he has written and welcomes the audience beautifully into Appa’s world throughout.

Where the play falls flat is in its lack of character development and the deus ex machina conclusion. The audience is told that Appa’s son Jung (Edward Wu) is basically estranged from the family, except from occasionally seeing his mother Umma (Namju Go) at Church. Their lack of relationship is said to be due to previous abuse. When given this context I was quite shocked, as all previous examples of physical manhandling (arguably assault) are played off as a joke. Suddenly, the show darkened for me at that point. Jung and Appa do rekindle their relationship – yet this is done in the space of about five minutes, and Appa doesn’t really do any work to apologise to, or heal with his son.

Appa also displays a lot of mistreatment towards his underappreciated daughter Janet (Jennifer Kim). This being a combination of patronising her, dismissing her career and her relationship status and throwing props at her. All is resolved, however, when Janet gets a boyfriend! I understand that Appa is meant to be a flawed character and the story isn’t trying to be groundbreaking in it’s dysfunctional family narrative, but it just feels like too many flaws to overlook as just the loving father who we love in spite of everything. Because his love is seemingly dependent on his children submitting to his will. The comedy that comes from this is continuous throughout the show yet I must say not particularly to my taste.

The show ‘Kevin Can F*** Himself’ comes to mind with this play. The classic loveable rogue father leads the plot, yet at the expense of the other characters playing along with his narrative. Overall making the play feel rather dated and out of touch.

KIM’S CONVENIENCE

★★★

Riverside Studios

KIM’S CONVENIENCE at Riverside Studios

★★★

“The performances were a pleasure to watch; each actor showing great nuance and detail in their characterisation”