The show’s creator, Ins Choi, describes it as a “love letter to my parents and all first-generation immigrants who have made the country they have settled in their home.”
When the play was originally performed in Toronto in 2011, he both authored it and played the son. It is centered around the day-to-day activities of a family-run Korean store.
Subsequently, he co-wrote the TV show, which debuted in Canada in 2016 and attracted global attention when Netflix bought it up two years later.
Now that he’s back on stage, Choi is playing the lead part of Appa, or Dad in Korean.
A drama inside the family
The drama portrays the proud and diligent patriarch of the family as he struggles with the shifting neighborhood and the increasing gap between his ideals as a first-generation immigrant and those of his offspring.
For example, Janet (Jennifer Kim), Appa’s daughter, is persuaded to take over the shop rather than follow her passion of becoming a photographer.
His warning that her “expiration date is over” also stems from the fact that, at thirty, she has no intention of getting married.
