The Counter is a play about a a waitress and a regular visitor in a local diner of a small town.  The unexpectedly become friends and he asks her for an unusual favor which reveals their deepest secrets.

Paul starts off each morning by going to a coffee shop. He would meet Katie and he was determined to become friends with her. He learned that she came from another city, but he assumed she left because of her old boyfriend. It turned out that she had 27 voice mails from him that she kept on her phone, and she wanted to go through each with Paul. As he continued his routine each day, they learned a lot about each other and became friends. He strangely asked Katie to pour a poison he got from the dark web into his drink when he was least expecting it. He said he wanted to go out on his own terms, but he also wanted it to be a surprise.
In addition to this, Katie found out that Paul was once an alcoholic, and Paul found out Katie had a hysterectomy. This was the main reason why Katie left, not just because of her boyfriend. Katie also found out that Paul had an affair with her doctor, Peg Bradley. After going through several of Katie’s boyfriend’s voicemails, a new one was discovered. Katie found out that her old boyfriend came to her town and wanted to see her. This surprised Paul, and then the play ended.

Katie spent the last two years trying to escape her reality. She moved to an isolated town because she got friend zoned by someone she kissed. Paul is different. He wants to have control of his life, which is why he wants to chose the way in which he goes out. He gave Katie the poison because he wants his death to be a surprise. He claims everything was straight forward, like the books he used to read where he could predict what would happen before it actually happens. However, the play ended with Katie deciding to go visit her old friend, which was a complete surprise to him.
I was confused about this ending. It seemed very sudden and I was under the impression that the play would end with Paul being poisoned. It can be inferred that he was poisoned that day, but the audience will never know for sure. Aside from this, I was impressed that the whole play was done by two characters and in the same setting. I also felt like some people in the audience were planted there to laugh at some of the jokes they made throughout the play, even though they weren’t really that funny.

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