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.
[1] As well as writing the show, Choi also directed the run and played the role of Jung, the protagonist's son.
[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.
As a member of Fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company’s play writing unit, he started writing the play partially based on the memories he had from Kim’s Grocer and on his experience working in other convenience stores.
[13] Choi says his main message in the play is for his audience to understand and respect the family-operated stores.
[13] After five years, Choi completed the play and sent it to all the major theatre companies in Toronto but received multiple rejections.
Regent Park is being gentrified with new condos and developments and the potential that a Wal-Mart will open up and destroy Mr. Kim's business.
Since then, Appa hasn't spoken to Jung, though Umma maintains surreptitious contact with him by meeting him at the church.
It is not until the prodigal son returns and reconciles with his father that the future of Kim's Convenience is assured.
Although trying their best to seem like a modern family, fully inducted to the new Canadian culture, this is not the truth in real sense.