“Kim’s Convenience”: Laughter, Love, and Cathartic Cry—at ACT
Ryan Jinn, Esther Chung, Ins Choi, Kelly Seo, and Brandon McKnight. Photos by Dahlia Katz
Ins Choi’s Heartfelt Comedy Recalls Sacrifice & Forbidden Words
by Isa S. Chu
Ins Choi has written and is starring in his acclaimed Korean Canadian comedy that holds up a mirror to immigrant sacrifices. We leave with tears in our eyes and gratitude in our hearts for a play that displays family love that often hides behind grudging apologies and awkward embraces.
Playwright Choi plays Appa, a Korean dad who runs the world of Kim’s Convenience Store. Joanna Yu’s set brims with small, perfectly balanced details: Canadian tourist tchotchkes, Korean flags and figurines, insam (“not ginseng”) drinks, and shelves lined with chocolate candies, ketchup-flavored potato chips, and basic toiletries.
Choi grounds the play as Appa with weary authority. He hums a Korean tune as he preps for the day, tests the price gun on his hand, embodying decades of routine work. It is a resigned meditation on his Canadian life, far removed from his career as a respected professor in Korea.
Esther Chung and Ryan Jinn
As Mom Umma, Esther Chung brings warmth, humor, and quiet strength. Her emotional Korean-language exchanges with Appa touch us, even without translation. We understand the rhythms of love, annoyance, and devotion in every word.
Ryan Jinn plays Jung, Abba’s estranged, delinquent son, who hovers over their despair. Jung’s absence weighs heavily, reminding us that reconciliation feels impossible. Jinn’s prodigal return is ushered in with a beautiful Korean duet between mother and son.
Kelly Seo plays Janet, Appa’s 30-year-old Westernized daughter. His moments with Janet crackle with tension. There are cringe-inducing dad-embarrasses-daughter moments, and father and daughter circling each other in heartbreaking fights. Seo shines as a daughter torn between gratitude and independence, determination and duty, family scenes we all remember.
Ins Choi and Brandon McKnight
Multi-talented Brandon McKnight embodies four brilliantly distinct characters, including: Janet’s childhood crush turned neighborhood cop, a smooth-talking realtor, and two accented customers. McKnight’s shifts in voice, posture, and comic timing expand the world beyond the store’s walls, offering a vivid sense of the community that surrounds the Kim family.
The play finds humor in everyday encounters. When Appa chats with an African customer, their accented back-and-forth sparks big laughs, revealing the beauty in our differences. Choi reminds us of the fun of simply being human together.
To Appa, the store is more than just a business—it’s his life’s work, his legacy: “If I sell the store, my story is over.” But Janet wants her own story as a photographer. That tension—between filial piety and personal freedom—hits home for many of us who grew up negotiating gratitude with our immigrant parents, while pushing toward our own futures.
Brandon McKnight and Kelly Seo
The play also introduces harder truths. Appa teaches “steal/no steal” as a racial profiling tactic. Is it pragmatic survival or outright racism? We take in that uncomfortable ambiguity, yet we laugh.
The heart of the play lies in reconciliation. In a powerful scene, Janet has Appa in an arm hold and apprehensively dares to command, “Say, ‘I love you, Janet!’” I whisper out loud: “Ooh girl, that’s asking too much!” The resolution is heart-wrenching, and I cannot hold back tears.
I walk out of ACT carrying the rare catharsis of laughter and reconciliation I hope to find with my own family. “Kim’s Convenience” combines history and family in wonderful comedy.
“Kim’s Convenience” by Ins Choi, directed by Weyni Mengesha, set design by Joanna Yu, costumes by Ming Wong, lighting by Wen-Ling Liao, by Soulpepper Theatre Company & Adam Blanshay Productions, at ACT, San Francisco.
Info: act-sf.org - to October 19, 2025.
Cast: Ins Choi, Kelly Seo, Esther Chung, Ryan Jinn, and Brandon McKnight.
