Kim's Convenience
- Full Length Play, Dramatic Comedy, Contemporary
- 3M, 2F
- ISBN: 9781487002237
Popularized by the CBC sitcom adaptation, Kim's Convenience is about a Korean Canadian family who run a convenience store, but are working through struggling relationships between a traditional father and a son who has left home.
Description
- Full Length Play
- Dramatic Comedy
- 90 minutes
- Time Period: Contemporary
- Target Audience: Adult
- Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings
- Cautions: No Special Cautions
- Performance Group:
- Community Theatre, Blackbox / Second Stage /Fringe Groups, Professional Theatre
With new luxury buildings going up around the convenience store and a Walmart preparing to move in, pressure is on to sell the Kim's family store. Mr. Kim's immigrant path towards building a life for his family in Canada is put under strain when a realtor makes a generous offer for the land. Questions of legacy and culture clash with economic concerns in this laugh-worthy, touching play about family and the relationship between one generation and the next.
REVIEWS:
"A vivid, detailed, celebratory portrait of multi-ethnic Toronto."
Edmonton Journal
"Genuinely funny, roaringly so."
Broadway World
"Its well-judged performances and abrupt humour allow it to demonstrate the importance of familial love, respect, and reconciliation, without drowning in sentimentality."
City A.M.
"This is popcorn theatre: we could go on watching and watching."
The Guardian
"Sacrifices began to seem like something quite real, not just a comic premise. The actors were crying. I cried, too."
The New York Times
"Laughter in store."
The Stage
"Warm-hearted"
The Times
"Achingly funny... Hilarious, heart-warming story of love, family and survival through change and challenge."
Everything Theatre
"A sitcom, with snappy one-liners, light slapstick and intermittent doses of sentimentality."
The Globe and Mail
"The play beautifully braids the serious concerns of legacy and culture with comedy."
Vancouver Sun
Kim's Convenience premiered at the Toronto Fringe Festival in July 2011. It was then picked up by Soulpepper Theatre in Toronto, who produced the play again in January 2012. It went on a Canadian National Tour in 2013. A CBC sitcom adaptation of the play made its debut in 2016, and in July 2017, Kim's Convenience premiered off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre.
Characters
- Casting: 3M, 2F
- Casting Attributes: Role(s) for Black Actor(s), Roles for Multicultural Casting, Role(s) for Asian Actor(s)
UMMA (Mom) – a 56-year-old 1st generation Korean-Canadian woman. Married to Appa. Speaks with a thick Korean- Canadian accent.
JANET – a 30-year-old 2nd generation Korean-Canadian woman. Daughter of Appa and Umma.
JUNG – a 32-year-old 2nd generation Korean-Canadian man. Son of Appa and Umma.
RICH – a young Black man.
MR. LEE – a successful Black real estate agent. A friend of APPA.
MIKE – a Black man with a thick Jamaican accent.
ALEX – a Black police officer. A childhood friend of JUNG and JANET.
Available Material
| Name | Price |
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Kim's Convenience Script
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The most successful new Canadian play of the last decade, Kim's Convenience – set in a family-run Korean variety store – is a hilarious and heartwarming ode to generations of immigrants who have made Canada the country that it is. |
$24.95 |
