K-W & Beyond

Kim’s Convenience by Ins Choi at Soulpepper in Toronto

The lights come on and the audience find themselves in a classic Toronto convenience store: the bell rings as the door opens, the shelves are filled with basic canned food and assorted bathroom supplies, there are notes on the wall and pop cans on the counter. And the guy behind the counter is also what is expected: a middle aged, chubby Korean speaking with a heavy accent and watching his business with experience acquired over the years of being there. Some customers come in just to pick up the Toronto Star and a pack of cigarettes, some come to steal. He is on the alert. It’s all so familiar -- the Korean wife and mother, with her amazing rhythm and tone of speech and so characteristic mannerisms, a very Canadian-ized daughter who wants to be a photographer, a prodigal son coming back to his father’s business after a job experience in car rental. This is a window on Toronto’s Regent Park, a convenience store, and the family who owns it and most likely lives above the store. So amazingly real!

I had to check that the actors in the play (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee playing Mr.Kim, Jean Yoon as his wife, Esther Jun as the daughter and Ins Choi as the son – (and incidentally the playwright of this jewel of a play) are real actors in Canada. Their acting is more than acting, they live the life in Kim’s Convenience, in Toronto, they experience immigration and settling in Canada, wishing for a better life for themselves and their children. Is it due to Weyni Mengesha’s directing or likely life experience of the actors themselves, or a combination of both – I don’t know. But Kim’s Convenience is so real, so genuine!

For Ins Choi this is an autobiographical play dedicated to his parents. It expresses his ties to them, to their community, their standards and beliefs, hopes for the future and ways of coping with present day events. The monologue of Mr. Kim explaining to his daughter how to tell who will steal and who will not is the centrepiece of this play, with his aside instructions “don’t be a racist!” causing laughter at its contradictory nature.

The only characters outside of the family circle – played by one actor Cle Bennet – are local Blacks: one of them making an offer on the business, another coming to shop, another to steal and finally in the role of the daughter’s high school friend currently being a policeman. Cle Bennet is great in changing personalities, body language, even speech.

It is an amazing play: giving us, the audience, a view into Toronto's Regent Park, and an immigrant’s family changes in their ambitions and life plans. It is so Canadian, so much home. I would not be surprised if it gets an extended run or a second run next year. At the performance I attended there were people left out because both this and several following performances were sold out to the last seat. Good for Soulpepper, good for Ins Choi. His parents are proud.

Kim’s Convenience is scheduled to run till February 11 and then again a new block of tickets is available for performances from May 17 (what a success!) at Soulpepper in Toronto Distillery District. For tickets call 416-866-8666 or visit www.soulpepper.ca.

Jazz Room at Huether Hotel downtown Waterloo

Jazz Room opened last September to an unpredictable future. The volunteers lined up and enthusiastically put it together - not sure how it would turn out. Well, they cannot believe the success and attendance: the space designated for concerts every Friday and Saturday night (about 160 seats) is filled up almost every time, sometimes there are not enough seats left for the jazz enthusiasts.

The NUMUS Great Canadian Jazz Summit – January 27 to 29 – a three day long series of 5+ concerts featuring Glen Buhr’s Ebony Tower Octet, Larry Larson celebrating music of Miles Davis, Penderecki Quartet accompanying Patricia O’Callaghan singing Neue Berlin Cabaret – was an amazing success.

The concerts are already scheduled for February and March, and expected to continue further. The crowds are beyond expectations; the jazz aficionados are there every Friday and Saturday. The Huether Hotel is happy to sell food and drinks. The program is available at their web-side (a very good user friendly web-site) www.kwjazzroom.com and the advance tickets at the Words Worth Books Uptown Waterloo or at the door at the Huether Hotel. Jazz is good for the soul…especially in cold Canadian Winter!