For my first experience with professional live theater, I would definitely say that I enjoyed The Counter. The play followed Paul, an aging retired firefighter (played by Anthony Edwards, who I totally did not expect to see after knowing him only from NBC’s ER) and Katie, a waitress at the diner Paul frequents. Initially, I found their banter amusing, as it almost reminded me of my own job. I work in a bakery, and I periodically get customers who love to tell me their life stories all while I’m ringing them up or helping them choose a cake for whatever occasion. Paul and Katie’s friendship steadily deepens as the play progresses, only for Paul to ask of Katie the unthinkable. One day, he gives her a vial of poison he had purchased online and tells her to put it in his coffee without telling him when, so that he can be “surprised”. Understandably appalled, Katie sees to it that Paul does not fall into any deeper of a depression that he seems to be in and does everything in her power to keep Paul alive. A theme of the play I found to be especially compelling was that of dying on one’s own terms. Paul’s brother had died in a feeble state, weakened by disease–something Paul absolutely does not want for himself. Although his purported method of achieving such a thing is morally questionable at best, I nonetheless respect that he simply wished to die on his own terms.
An aspect I highly respected about Katie’s character was her self-assurance in regards to why she left the city in the first place. Paul jabbed at her, saying her moving was a “give-up life”: for Katie, however, it was anything but. In actuality, it was her new beginning after a traumatic hysterectomy due to endometriosis. The scene where she finally tells Paul off and explains why exactly she moved was, for me, one of the most satisfying in the entire production.
Beyond that, I found their friendship beautiful. Paul and Katie genuinely supported and uplifted each other throughout the play: Katie continually pushed Paul to stay alive, whether that be through learning Italian or pursuing an old relationship with Dr. Bradley, and Paul was a support to Katie in navigating her feelings for a friend who had rejected her. Ultimately, Katie decides to go meet this friend on Paul’s urging, and the two share an embrace before she leaves and Paul is again left alone. I admired Paul’s selflessness in this moment: someone as lonely as himself could very well have told Katie to stay at the diner so he could have his conversation partner, but he only ever had her best interests in mind, just as she did his. The Counter, to me, serves as a testament to the profound strength of friendships forged in unlikely places.
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