Kim's Convenience (play)

For the TV series based on the play, see Kim's Convenience.
Kim's Convenience
Written byIns Choi
Characters
  • Appa
  • Umma
  • Janet
  • Jung
  • Rich
  • Mike
  • Alex
  • Mr. Lee
Date premieredJuly 6, 2011
Place premieredToronto Fringe Festival
SettingRegent Park, Toronto

Kim's Convenience (Korean: 김씨네 편의점; Hanja: 金氏네 便宜店; RR: Gimssine Pyeonuijeom), by Ins Choi, is a play about a family-run Korean-owned convenience store in Toronto's Regent Park neighbourhood.

It debuted on July 6, 2011 at the Toronto Fringe Festival, having secured a slot by winning the Festival's New Play Contest. The play sold out its seven-show run at the 200 seat Bathurst Street Theatre and won the Patron's Pick award that granted them an additional eighth show, which sold out in three hours.[1] As well as writing the show, Choi also directed the run and played the role of Jung, the protagonist's son.

In 2012, Kim's Convenience was remounted by Soulpepper Theatre, under the direction of Weyni Mengesha, and became the most commercially successful production in the company's entire history.[2] The production won two Toronto Theatre Critics awards in 2012, for Best Actor in a play, won by Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, and Best Canadian Play.[3] It was also a nominee for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play in 2012.

The script was published by House of Anansi Press in 2012,[4] and the play toured Canada from 2013 to 2016.[4] In 2017, the show was performed Off-Broadway at the Pershing Square Signature Center as part of a month-long residency of Soulpepper productions.[5]

In March 2015, CBC Television announced that a television series based on the play, also titled Kim's Convenience, was in development.[6] Billed as the first Canadian TV show to feature an Asian cast of lead actors, Kim's Convenience was celebrated as an achievement in diversity in television.[7] The first season of the series was filmed from June to August 2016, and produced by Thunderbird Films and Toronto's Soulpepper Theatre Company. It was broadcast in 13 half-hour episodes on CBC Television in the fall of 2016 and went on to run for five seasons, concluding in April 2021.[8]

  1. ^ Choi, Ins (2012). Kim's Convenience. Toronto, Canada: House of Anansi Press Inc. pp. xi–xvii, 3. ISBN 978-1-77089-223-1.
  2. ^ " Kim's Convenience a treat for all Canadians". Calgary Herald, September 5, 2013.
  3. ^ "Kim's Convenience gets five thumbs-up at Toronto Theatre Critics Awards". News.nationalpost.com. Retrieved 2016-11-20.
  4. ^ a b "Kim's Convenience drawing TV interest, Ins Choi says". CBC News, July 7, 2013.
  5. ^ Green, Jesse (15 July 2017). "Review: 'Kim's Convenience' Shares Family Ties, for Better and Worse". The New York Times.
  6. ^ "CBC reveals new TV shows, revives Michael: Tuesdays and Thursdays". The Globe and Mail, March 4, 2015.
  7. ^ Shea, C. "Q&A: Ins Choi, the playwright whose new CBC comedy, Kim's Convenience, premieres tonight". Toronto Life. Retrieved 11 Oct 2016.
  8. ^ "OK, see you: Kim's Convenience closing after 5 seasons on CBC". March 8, 2021.