Kim’s Convenience
By Ins Choi
The hilarious and heart-warming award-winning comedy drama about a Korean family-run corner store that inspired the Netflix hit, is a feel-good ode to generations of immigrants who have made Canada the country that it is today.
Mr. Kim works hard to support his wife and children with his Toronto convenience store. As he evaluates his future, he faces both a changing neighbourhood landscape and the gap between his values and those of his Canada-born children. Choi calls Kim’s Convenience his ‘love letter to his parents and to all first-generation immigrants who call Canada their home.’
Playwright Ins Choi (who played Mr Kim’s son in the original stage play) will star as Mr. Kim – the proud, hardworking patriarch of the family. Esther Jun, who also has a long history with the play having been cast in the original, returns this time to direct the five strong cast which also includes Namju Go, Jennifer Kim, Brian Law and Miles Mitchell.
Adam Blanshay Productions and Park Theatre
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Evenings
19.00
Thu & Sat15.00
Gallery
In the press
"Irresistible in its appeal... Masterfully directed"
The Guardian
"a store of wisdom"
Financial Times
"Bright and light on its feet"
The Observer
"A light, entertaining, keenly observed piece"
The Stage
"‘Expertly written... with perfect comic timing"
Everything Theatre
"This heart-warming and heart-breaking delightful play"
London Pub Theatres
"An absolutely wonderful story"
All That Dazzles
"Ins Choi’s performance is sublime"
The Spy in the Stalls
"The cast may be small but it really is mighty"
Theatre & Tonic
"There is so much love in this production it’s contagious"
Salterton Arts Review
"Incredibly relatable... hilarious yet heartwarming"
Rachel Reviewed
"Sublimely funny and neatly stitched"
Time Out
"It has heart and likability by the bucketload"
WhatsOnStage
Cast & Creatives
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Ins Choi
Appa
Ins Choi
Appa
Ins Choi was born in Korea but grew up and currently lives in Toronto, Canada with his wife and two children. Some of his theatre acting credits include Banana Boys, lady in the red dress (fu-GEN); Hamlet, The Odyssey, Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, All’s Well That Ends Well (Stratford Festival); Alligator Pie, Death of a Saleman (Soulpepper).
As a writer, his debut play, Kim’s Convenience, won the Best New Play award and the Patron’s Pick at the 2011 Toronto Fringe festival. It then launched Soulpepper theatre company’s 2012 season, toured across Canada, and was adapted into a tv series of the same name on the CBC and Netflix for 5 seasons. Ins was a writer, executive producer and co-creator of the tv series. He has also written a solo show called Subway Stations of the Cross, Songs Stories and Spoken Words and was part of the collective that created Alligator Pie, re(birth): ee cummings in song, Window on Toronto (Soulpepper); 2000 Candles (Brookstone).
His new play, Bad Parent, was recently produced in a rolling world premiere by Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre PTE in Winnipeg, the Cultch in Vancouver, and at Soulpepper in Toronto. He’s also developing various tv and film projects.
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Namju Go
Umma
Namju Go
Umma
South Korea-born Namju Go is a model and actress based in London. Her career has spanned more than 30 years and has included films and dozens of TV commercials. When not working she enjoys exercising at the gym and cooking Korean food for family and friends.
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Jennifer Kim
Janet
Jennifer Kim
Janet
Jennifer Kim is Korean American, born in Seoul, raised in Los Angeles and trained in Bristol. Her last film, Allegiance, was performed in North Korean Hamgyeong dialect. Jennifer is a graduate of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Theatre includes: Coleman ’72 (South Coast Repertory PPF), What We Owe Our Lies (Antaeus Theatre Company), and Fair (OC Centric)
Film/Television includes: Allegiance (RuthJack Productions), A Dog in the Mud (Avonni Productions), Sonder (Bolo Media) and Get Off Screen (Dana Productions).
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Brian Law
Jung
Brian Law
Jung
Brian is a London-based actor originally from Toronto, Canada.
Theatre includes: Safehouse (Cockpit Theatre, Hen & Chickens); A Stroke of Luck (Watford Pumphouse, Queens Park Arts); Between the Lines (Drayton Arms)
Film and Television includes: Treason (Netflix); Black Mirror (Netflix); Doctor Who (BBC), Jack Ryan (Amazon); Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (Part 1) (Paramount); Spider-Man: Far From Home (Marvel); Suspicion (AppleTV+); White Dragon (ITV)
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Miles Mitchell
Miles Mitchell
Rich / Mr Lee / Mike / Alex
Theatre includes: Salomè, Dido Queen of Carthage and Much Ado About Nothing (RSC); King Lear (Talawa); The Comedy of Errors, A Taste of Honey (National Theatre); Great Britain (National Theatre/Theatre Royal Haymarket); Blood Wedding (Liverpool Everyman, Derby Theatre/ New Wolsey); The Hospital At The Time of The Revolution (Finborough Theatre); Chavs – Last Man On The Heygate (The Lyric Hammersmith); The Globe Mysteries (Shakespeare’s Globe); Neighbors’ (The High Tide Festival).
Televison includes: Holby City, Casualty, Doctors (BBC); The Irregulars (Netflix); The Tempest (CBBC); Drifters (E4), Law and Order UK (ITV)
Film includes: King Lear (Saffron Cherry TV/BBC) The Pay Day (STARZ); LORE (Sea & Sky); Breathe (M.A Films) and Dawn Chorus (RSI).
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Ins Choi
Writer
Ins Choi
Writer
Ins Choi was born in Korea but grew up and currently lives in Toronto, Canada with his wife and two children. Some of his theatre acting credits include Banana Boys, lady in the red dress (fu-GEN); Hamlet, The Odyssey, Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, All’s Well That Ends Well (Stratford Festival); Alligator Pie, Death of a Saleman (Soulpepper).
As a writer, his debut play, Kim’s Convenience, won the Best New Play award and the Patron’s Pick at the 2011 Toronto Fringe festival. It then launched Soulpepper theatre company’s 2012 season, toured across Canada, and was adapted into a tv series of the same name on the CBC and Netflix for 5 seasons. Ins was a writer, executive producer and co-creator of the tv series. He has also written a solo show called Subway Stations of the Cross, Songs Stories and Spoken Words and was part of the collective that created Alligator Pie, re(birth): ee cummings in song, Window on Toronto (Soulpepper); 2000 Candles (Brookstone).
His new play, Bad Parent, was recently produced in a rolling world premiere by Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre PTE in Winnipeg, the Cultch in Vancouver, and at Soulpepper in Toronto. He’s also developing various tv and film projects.
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Esther Jun
Director
Esther Jun
Director
Esther Jun is a Toronto based director and the Artistic Associate in Planning and the Director of The Langham Directors Workshop at The Stratford Festival of Canada. She has worked with companies across Canada including The Shaw Festival, Cahoots, Nightwood,Theatre and Soulpepper.Theatre She is a founding member of Directors Lab North, the first international offshoot of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab in 2010. She was Assistant Artistic Director at Tarragon Theatre from 2016-2018, where she directed the Canadian premiere of Evan Placey’s Girls Like That and premiered Theory by Norman Yeung. Most recently Esther directed Les Belles-Soeurs by Michel Trembley, I Am William by Rébecca Déraspe and a new adaptation of Little Women by Jordi Mand at Stratford. (www.theestherjun.com)
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Mona Camille
Designer
Mona Camille
Designer
Mona Camille is a designer for theatre, film and dance with a background in architecture. Mona’s recent designs include Milk & Gall at Theatre503, Promised Land at the Bloomsbury Festival, Camaleonte by Studio Goodluck Productions, harmony. 天人合一 at the Blue Elephant Theatre, The Tree of Objects at Jacksons Lane Theatre. Mona’s credits as an associate include A View From The Bridge (Headlong Theatre) at the Octagon Bolton, Chichester Festival Theatre and Rose Theatre, Henry V at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Worth (New Earth Theatre) at the Arcola Theatre and Storyhouse Theatre, and Raya at the Hampstead Theatre. Mona Camille is also a multidisciplinary artist with artworks exhibited at the Seychelles Biennale of Contemporary Art 2022 and the Seychelles National Museum for the 2022 Festival Kreol.
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Jonathan Chan
Lighting Designer
Jonathan Chan
Lighting Designer
Jonathan trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His credits include: Ignition (Frantic Assembly), The Flea (Yard), Candy (Park), Love Bomb (NYT), Duck (Arcola), Grindr: The Opera (Union), Snowflakes (Park & Old Red Lion), In the Net (Jermyn Street), Grandad Me and Teddy Too (Polka), The Solid Life of Sugar Water (Orange Tree), Lady Dealer (Paines Plough Roundabout), An Interrogation (Summerhall), Move Fast and Break Things (Camden People’s & Summerhall), Pussycat In Memory of Darkness, The Straw Chair (Finborough), Maybe Probably, Belvedere (Old Red Lion), Different Owners at Sunrise (The Roundhouse) Fidelio (Glyndebourne – Assistant Lighting Designer) and The Passenger R&D (Guildhall – Associate Lighting Designer).
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Adrienne Quartly
Sound designer and composer
Adrienne Quartly
Sound designer and composer
Credits include: Get Happy (Barbican); The Price (Gate Dublin); The Tempest (RSC); The Nutcracker (Bristol Old Vic); Gunpowder Immersive (Tower of London); Bad Jews (Arts, West End); Footfalls & Rockaby (Jermyn Theatre); Napoleon (Told By An Idiot); Red (Polka Theatre); The Girl Who Fell (Trafalgar Studios); Black Men Walking (Eclipse Theatre); Citysong (Abbey Theatre, Dublin); The Paper Man, Opening Skinners Box (Improbable); Rose, Queen Margaret (Royal Exchange Manchester); Cuttin It (Young Vic/Royal Court); Splendour (Donmar Warehouse).
Audio/Albums include: Mansfield Park for Audible, A Tale of Two Cities (Incidental; music for the stage); Artists Rifles (Piano Magic).
Film credits include: Lost Tango and 7 Deadly Idiots.
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Philip d'Orleans
Fight Director
Philip d'Orleans
Fight Director
Philip is a member of the Equity Register of Fight Directors, and of the teaching and examining staff of the British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat. He has worked throughout Europe and America, alongside his regular teaching commitments for RADA, Drama Studio London and other drama schools and universities.
Theatre credits include: Measure For Measure and Hamlet (The Globe); The Kite Runner (Broadway, USA); Ravenscourt (Hampstead Theatre); Shakespeare In Love (Norwegian National Theatre); The Prince and the Pauper, Richard III, Henry VI, Bartholomew Fair (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse); For Services Rendered, Stitchers (Jermyn Street Theatre); Botticelli In The Fire (Hampstead Theatre); Brassed Off (Northern Broadsides); Richard III (The Rose Theatre); Blenheim, Twelfth Night, Merry Wives Of Windsor, Romeo & Juliet (Guildford Shakespeare Company); Henry V (The Rose Theatre York); Agreed (Glyndebourne Opera); Merry Wives Of Windsor, King Lear (Shakespeare’s Globe); Andrea Chenier (Royal Opera House); Simon Boccanegran (Greek National Opera); Romeo Et Juliette (Korea National Opera); Titus Andronicus (Royal Shakespeare Company); The Outsider (The Print Room), Brighton Rock (Theatre Royal York).
Recently for the stage, The Nutcracker for the New Vic Theatre Stoke On Trent. Philip’s screen work includes films for Warner Bros and Universal Pictures and documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4. Recently on television he was Sword Master for Lockwood & Co.
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Beth Qualter Buncall
Costume Supervisor
Beth Qualter Buncall
Costume Supervisor
A freelance costume supervisor, stylist, textiles creative and draper, and fashion pattern cutter. With a raft of practical experience and innate skill, she intuitively understands the construction of products and can skillfully deconstruct and reconstruct items to create something both beautiful and practical for stage use. Beth works from her offgrid floating studio on the London canals to create commissioned products such as made-to-measure garments, drapes and textile products.
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Emily May Rose
Graffiti Artist
Emily May Rose
Graffiti Artist
Emily May Rose is an award-winning artist and illustrator based in Toronto, Canada. Based on her own experiences, Emily’s work features a cast of recurring characters (most notably her weed-smoking, pizza-eating raccoons) to depict humorous situations that are relatable to many of us who are trying to survive in an urban environment. Her work can be found in many formats including murals, editorial illustration, apparel design, installations, and gallery settings. Her murals can be found all over the world where she’s painted in street art festivals, artist residencies, and other commissions during her various travels.
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Ian Taylor for Estage
Production Manager
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Lewis Champney for Estage
Assistant Production Manager
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Adam Blanshay & Amelia Cherry
Producers
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Ellen Harris & Giorgio Spiegelif
Assistant Producers
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Reuben Bojang
Company Stage Manager
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Jinwen Chen
Assistant Stage Manager
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Shupin Liu
Props Supervisor
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Rebecca Clark Carey
Dialect Coach
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Diana Whitehead for Fourth Wall PR
PR
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