Imagine you have been transported back to the year 2012.
What’s the first song that comes to mind? The play “Kim’s Convenience” which runs through Nov. 15 at the Indiana Repertory Theatre (IRT), opens with a needle drop of Bruno Mars’ platinum hit “Locked Out of Heaven.” Midway through the production, you’ll also hear Drake’s “Take Care.”
In 2012, Barack Obama was still president and Whitney Houston had just died.
But the play goes beyond pop culture. Cara Hinh, the play’s director, is trying to capture a cultural moment by examining how society viewed race and immigration then — and now. “Kim’s Convenience” centers on a Korean-Canadian family who owns a convenience store in the heart of a Black neighborhood in Toronto.
Written by Ins Choi and first performed at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2011, “Kim’s Convenience” was adapted into a five-season sitcom on Netflix.
The story of immigration and sacrifice in “Kim’s Convenience” hits close to home for Hinh, whose father is a Vietnamese refugee who moved to Indianapolis in the 1970s.
“People give up their whole lives to move somewhere new, it’s an incredible sacrifice and a gift for your family,” Hinh said.
Indie sleaze realness
The play is a period piece, according to Hinh, who is also associate artistic director at IRT. They were adamant about keeping “Kim’s Convenience” in the same time period in which it was written.
Hinh drew upon a youth subculture that many people are nostalgic for right now (many would say it’s baked in revisionism) — indie sleaze. If you’re unfamiliar and the link didn’t quite help you understand the fashion style and the nightlife aesthetic tied closely to Tumblr’s heyday, then look to the play’s main character, Janet Kim.
The hipster, played by Jenny S. Lee, wears fishnet tights and platform Derby shoes, and carries a film camera and a journal with the year 2012 plastered across the front. Also, she rocks an orange bag that you could’ve found at any Nirvana store 14 years ago, too.
Janet helps her father, Appa Kim (played by Tony K. Nam), run his neighborhood convenience store.
But the neighborhood around the store is changing. Gentrification is occurring rapidly while we watch as the family navigates personal problems and the future of their store they’ve had for 30 years.
The impact of gentrification is real in many communities in predominantly Black and brown areas across the U.S. But the word, too, became a cultural buzzword and heated media topic in the early 2010s.
Lee said there’s a word — “gohyang” — meaning hometown, birthplace or ancestral home in Korean that best describes what the convenience store means to the family, particularly Janet, and its neighbors.
“The kind of community they are able to build by being in service to the people who are there,” Lee said. “The convenience store is more than just that building or place. (Janet) has spent her whole life taking care of this place, she’s the youngest child but the convenience (store) is her younger sibling,”
Don’t take the chip off your shoulder (or the stage)
The store almost acts as another character alongside its all-star cast, including Umma (played by Tuyết Thị Phạm), Jung (played by Jae Woo) and the multiple roles of Austin Michael Young.
Scenic designer Yoon Bae said the IRT’s thrust stage, which has seating on three sides, allows audience members to feel part of the convenience store.
Bae said creating the world of “Kim’s Convenience” required a lot of research. She worked with the props director and scene shop team to create a replica of a common Canadian convenience store in the 2010s. But she also wanted it to feel familiar to anyone across North America.
She spent last summer drafting set design concepts that turned into the interior of a 27-feet by 30-feet store.
There are over 100 items packed in shelves around the store. You’ll find Bugles, ramen, period-appropriate Pringles, banana milk and Korean energy drinks.
“One of the informal discussions we had was, ‘What if the audience members come and take the snacks?’ None of that has happened,” Bae said jokingly.
“Kim’s Convenience” is more than its set design. The production writing often uses satire and humor to tackle topics like racial profiling, Japanese colonial rule, career expectations, generational divides, strained family relationships, forgiveness and love.
“The story is so deeply personal to us all … in navigating what it means to have immigrant parents,” Hinh said. “It’s been a labor of love to try to ask people to see this story and get rid of this idea of perpetual foreignness and immigrants taking from us.”
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Mirror Indy reporter Mesgana Waiss covers arts and culture. Contact her at 317-667-2643 or mesgana.waiss@mirrorindy.org.
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