I had never heard of The Counter before this trip. The only hint we were given regarding its plot was an advertisement outside of The Roundabout Theatre with the quote: “IT WAS AN ORDINARY DAY UNTIL IT WASN’T.” Upon receiving the playbill I was even more confused. There were only four characters in the cast, one of which doesn’t even appear onstage, and only one setting. The stage itself looked like an IKEA display kitchen (second time drawing a comparison to IKEA in my blog).
One thing I also noticed immediately after sitting down in the auditorium was the age of the other audience members; most of them were much older than us, so I began to wonder how this play might attract such an audience.
The play started off pretty slow. The main characters Katie and Paul were cracking jokes, so I was put under the impression that maybe it was a comedy. As the show progressed, I kept wondering when the ‘turn’ was supposed to happen; when did it stop being “an ordinary day”? Even in hindsight I can’t seem to figure out where exactly the turn happened. Was it when Paul asked Katie if they could become closer friends? Or when Paul asked Katie to poison him? Or when Katie received a new voicemail?
I really enjoyed the way the script was able to convey both Katie and Paul’s development as they learned from each other. They discussed the reality of depression and its impact on relationships, which are seldom mentioned, especially in relation to the older generation. It was this theme that made me realize why the audience was older. However, while the topics discussed in the show seemed to target an older audience, I found Paul’s fear of ending up in the same nursing home as his mom and brother to be very relevant to me since my family has a history of Alzheimer’s disease. In its later stages, individuals essentially require around the clock care, so nursing homes become an unfortunate reality.
Most of all, I really liked the way that the set was designed to use lighting as part of telling the story. The overhead lights fading to black represent the cycle of day and night. This notifies the audience of a change in scene when the whole play is set in one place. The separation of scenes is especially important in this case because the director intends to convey that Paul and Katie’s development happens over the course of many days. Additionally, the golden light cast through the frosted window in the diner indicates to the audience that Paul is always there unusually early, supporting the mentions of his insomnia. I admire how the frost on the window serves multiple purposes. It both obscures the view of backstage, and provides a strong visual of this wintery upstate New York setting, where characters come into the diner shivering in heavy coats.
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