Welcoming new Inventive Director Brandon Weinbrenner, Everyman Theatre spearheaded its thirty sixth season in standout vogue with Ins Choi’s internationally acclaimed comedy, Kim’s Comfort, in an unprecedented collaboration with Indiana Repertory Theatre and Portland Middle Stage.
As these aware of the favored five-season Netflix sitcom collection could already know, Kim’s Comfort is about in a household nook retailer run by Mr. Kim (aka “Appa”), a fiercely proud, acutely wily, hardworking Korean immigrant who’s navigating a quickly gentrifying neighborhood and an unsure legacy compounded by sophisticated relationships together with his estranged son, Jung, and aspiring photographer daughter, Janet.
The fast-moving, 80-minute manufacturing is delivered to quick life by way of award-winning scenic designer Yoon Bae’s immersive set, resident costume designer David Burdick’s detailed styling, regional and off-Broadway lighting designer Kat Zhou’s eager highlights, and Portland-based sound designer Phillip Gerard Johnson’s lyrical preparations. Everyman’s resident combat and intimacy choreographer Lewis Shaw provides bodily artistry, demonstratively led by resident stage supervisor Cat Wallis.
Underneath the masterful route of cara hinh, who serves as Indiana Rep’s affiliate inventive director, Choi’s 2011 play is as hilarious, poignant, and interesting as ever, teeming with sharp wit and heartwarming moments because it explores universally relatable, difficult household dynamics, interwoven with immigrant experiences and intergenerational intricacies inside a family-run enterprise.
Mr. Kim, aptly known as Appa (Korean for Dad), convincingly performed by Resident Firm Member Tony Nam, is a first-generation South Korean immigrant and former schoolteacher. Upon settling in Canada, Appa seized upon the chance to personal a Toronto neighborhood comfort retailer. His steadfast, churchgoing spouse, Umma (Korean for mother), tautly portrayed by Resident Firm Member Tuyết Thị Phạm, dutifully assists him. Alongside Appa in working the shop is 30-year-old Janet, his second-generation Korean daughter, vibrantly offered by Jenny Lee, who seamlessly toggles between underlying resentment and a way of obligation as she tries to forge her personal path in life. Because the present unfolds, we be taught that Janet’s older brother, Jung (deftly depicted by Jae Woo), ran away 16 years earlier after a violent confrontation together with his father. His absence casts a palpable undercurrent of gloom.
In the meantime, downtown Toronto, the place the shop is positioned, is being redeveloped with an expansive apartment complicated with a Walmart on the way in which. Change is inevitably coming, and a neighborhood actual property mogul, Mr. Lee (performed by Austin Michael Younger, whose expert versatility can also be displayed as three different characters: Alex, Mike, and Wealthy), presents Appa with an surprising supply to purchase the shop that will enable him to retire comfortably. However Appa believes that promoting the shop is tantamount to discarding his story, and he tries to elucidate this to Janet, hoping that she’s going to proceed his legacy.
Every of the solid members is excellent. Nam’s Appa is unapologetically daring however endearing. His Korean accent is uproariously genuine, which balances his paternal bluntness. This was notably underscored in a scene with Janet, when he informs her, “It’s important to perceive, now’s desperation time for you. Sudden loss of life, additional time, penalty kick shootout. Expiration date is over. Take over retailer is simply alternative you having.”
Lee’s Janet is enthralling to observe, as she is as assertive as she is loyal, making it straightforward to root for her rapidly budding romance with Younger’s likable Alex. Phạm’s stalwart Umma has a measured presence within the present, however her maternal spirit steadies all through the play. Woo emotionally captures Jung’s essence with nuanced dimensions of inside battle, ache, and remorse.
Hysterically heartwarming, Kim’s Comfort shines as a love letter to first-generation immigrants, capturing the cultural clashes of hardworking dad and mom and their native-born kids with wit and inspiration that resonate in each household dynamic.
Working Time: Roughly 80 minutes with no intermission.
Kim’s Comfort performs by way of September 27, 2026, at Everyman Theatre, 315 West Fayette Avenue, Baltimore, MD. Buy tickets ($78.50–$105.50) on-line, by contacting the field workplace at boxoffice@everymantheatre.org, or by calling 410.752.2208. Customary field workplace hours are Monday by way of Friday, 12 p.m.- 5 p.m., and closed on Saturday and Sunday. The field workplace will open 2 hours earlier than each efficiency, together with weekends. Everyman provides greater than 700 Pay-What-You-Select seats all through the run, with seats allotted for each efficiency.
The playbill is on-line right here.
Kim’s Comfort
By Ins Choi
Directed by cara hinh
Co-production with Indiana Repertory Theatre and Portland Middle Stage
