Before seeing The Counter I had low expectations because I found most of the plays I have seen throughout my life boring. On the day of the show, I was surprised it was located in Times Square, and when I arrived there, the building was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. When I entered the theater, there were a lot of people in the audience and a small, empty set of a coffee shop, which lowered my expectations even more. 

Despite all this doubt, after finishing the show, I was shocked as to how good it was. Basically, it depicted a conversation between Katie, the owner of the coffee shop, and Paul, an old man who goes to the coffee shop every morning from Monday to Saturday, and I loved the window effect when Paul was walking past it every day. It did a great job in showing the freezing cold temperatures outside and the cozy warm atmosphere inside the shop. The play also did a great job in characterization. They did great in making the audience feel bad for both characters, especially Paul. There were these moments where all the lighting was focused on one character as they were speaking while they were sharing depressing statements. The one scene that really got me on the verge of tears was when Paul gave Katie a poison he bought from the dark web, and told her to surprise him by putting it in his coffee one day. The rest of the play was spent with Katie trying to cheer Paul up, and the play ended with a great cliffhanger that made me eager to know what will happen next. One more thing that I found cool was that I found out the actor Paul was Anthony Edwards, and he had an appearance in the Top Gun movies. Overall, what I took away from this play was that there is value in life no matter how you perceive it.

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