The day before, I looked up information about the play and learned it was a new work, so I decided to keep an open mind. While researching, I found out that there would be no intermissions. This wasn’t a problem, but it was definitely a change from what I was used to seeing in the couple of Broadway plays I had attended before. After work, I headed to the ferry and, although I was almost late, I managed to catch the 1:30 ferry.

When we finally arrived at the Roundabout, I didn’t know what to expect from the play. The set was simple yet extremely detailed, and although it was static, the use of lighting created a sense of movement. The play centered around a man named Paul, who comes to the same diner every day, and a woman named Katie, who runs the diner. Paul slowly reveals to Katie that he is depressed and that his world has become mundane. He tries to use Katie as a source of “entertainment” by learning why she moved to this place and how her life became so “boring.”

He discovers that Katie ran away from her past, moving from the big city to this small town in an attempt to escape. The person she tried to escape was a guy named Gil, a friend with whom she had developed romantic tension. When she decided to kiss him, thinking it was the right thing to do, she was met with a reaction she hadn’t hoped for. Instead of facing the consequences, she ran away.

On the flip side of the story, Paul tries to get Katie to open up by divulging details about his own life and how he ended up in the diner. He begins by telling her that he is depressed and tired of how predictable the world has become. To create a surprise, he offers her a bottle of poison, stating that he wishes to be “poisoned” by her as a final surprise. At first, Katie protests and tries to come up with different solutions, which temporarily keeps the problem at bay.

As the play unfolds, Paul continues to share more about his life, revealing the loss of his brother and mother. This clearly serves to illustrate why Paul is so jaded toward life, highlighting the significant grief he has endured.

The climax of the story occurs when Paul becomes upset with Katie for prolonging his death, feeling that she has no idea what he has been through. In an effort to calm him down, Katie reveals that she had a hysterectomy, and on the day of the procedure, she felt a part of herself die. She shares that the only two people who know about this are Paul and Gil. This revelation allows Paul to better understand Katie’s situation, and the scene concludes with a silent hug, accompanied by an unspoken promise from Katie to end Paul’s life the next day.

When the next day arrives, Katie receives a call from Gil, who is in the area and asks if she’s free to meet. Hesitant, Katie realizes that the right thing to do is to reconnect with him and attempt to restart her old life. Paul fully supports her decision and decides to take over the diner in her absence. The play ends on an ambiguous note, with Paul staring at his untouched coffee, which may or may not be poisoned.

The play, though slow at times, builds beautifully toward the finale, with the tension between Paul and Katie escalating until it culminates in a single scene. Everything feels genuine; these are two people with very different outlooks on life trying to find common ground. Paul, much more jaded, views every experience as the same and believes that the only surprise he is missing is death. In contrast, Katie is comfortable with the mundaneness of her life, fearful of opening herself up to new possibilities and confronting her past.

Through their interactions, both characters evolve. Katie seizes the opportunity to revisit her past and attempt to right the wrongs she once made, while Paul is surprised to learn that Gil, rather than abandoning her, had spent two years trying to find her. This revelation surprises Paul so much that he hesitates to drink the poisoned coffee at the end, beginning to realize that maybe there is more to life than he initially thought.

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.

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.

The Counter was severely underestimated initially, but I left with a new point of view about the expected vs. unexpected of life. One of the main points throughout the play was that Paul, the lead male role, wanted to experience a surprise in his life because he was too numb and comfortable with the life he has been living. The emotional and physical exhaustion he was left with after taking care of and losing his mother and brother had become unbearable. After experiencing so much grief, Paul’s life became predictable and he wanted to gain back at least an ounce of control. To him, the solution was a radical approach, specifically deciding the way he would die but not when he would go. He transferred partial control to Katie, the female lead role, to gain the surprise element he was missing in life. As a result, the audience was left in suspense, wondering when she would add the poison to the coffee and if she would even do it.

While Paul was playing with his life and letting it hang in someone else’s hands, Katie was frantically going through the motions of her so-called “give up life” or escape fantasy. On the surface, she appeared satisfied with her quaint little life working as a diner waitress in a small town. Deep down, she was nitpicking month-old voicemails and contemplating if her past actions justified the life she has now. She was pulled into quite a situation when she agreed to be friends with Paul and share secrets or tough talks. Little did she know that Paul would be criticizing her life and implying that she was not familiar with the concept of having to take care of someone. The immediate level of aggression from Katie’s voice shocked the audience. Her explanation of her obstacles, such as having to give up the option of children, indicated that she knows what it means to be selfish if it means taking care of yourself.

The repetition of the counter scene emphasized that having the same daily routine could provide a sense of balance, but it could also become mundane. Every morning, Paul would come into the diner and Katie would pour him a cup of coffee. This interaction is what opens the door to the friendship that they develop throughout the play. Had it not been for those tough talks, Paul might have never started to learn Italian and Katie would not have deleted any voicemails. Both characters would have missed out on what the world was offering them, and they needed that extra nudge out the door to remind them that there is a meaning to life and it becomes much warmer when surrounded by friends. 

Brendan Kwan 

23 September, 2024

My day started off with me eating a small, modest breakfast sandwich. I brushed my teeth, got dressed, and went to the ferry. I met up with my friends at Empire Outlets and we took the ferry with our other classmates. When we arrived in Manhattan, I second guessed myself and missed the train with everybody in it, prompting me to take the next train that came around five minutes after. When I got off the train, I attempted to use Google Maps to get to the theater, but it caused me to run for twenty minutes in the wrong direction. I then asked a kind gentleman for directions and he told me where to go and I finally arrived at the theater after fifteen strenuous minutes. The play consisted of 2 main characters: Paul and Katie. Katie was a waitress and Paul was an ex-alcoholic. Paul talks about his obsession with Sophia Loren and Italian tape recordings. Paul wanted Katie to poison him. Katie did not want to poison him, because she would go to jail for murder. Both characters went through tough times, Paul being an ex-alcoholic and Katie moving and dodging twenty seven voicemail messages. They hugged and she went to find her mystery voicemail man. The play was pretty good, but to be honest, it did not feel short at all. The seconds felt like minutes and the minutes felt like hours, but I think that was partially due to the fact that I tired myself out while trying to get to the theater. Overall, I really liked the set of the play and it was a great first play to watch.

     My trip began when I arrived at Snug Harbor. The layout of the park was confusing, but I managed to find the Art Lab building. When I entered, I was greeted and given a free rubber wrist band and a sheet of paper that depicted what activities were located in what room. I decided to go to the oil painting lab, since I have never tried it. When I entered the room, I was greeted by an art teacher and my peers. The class began with the art teacher showing some of her works made with oil paint, they seemed beautiful and the thought of soon making something similar made me excited. The art teacher continued by setting up the classroom with chairs, easels, and art models. After that the class was handed a canvas, a plastic cup with a paint dissolving solution in it, a paintbrush, a wooden board with paper on it, and paper towels. Then I had a choice of what to paint and I chose a pair of pears on a dark red background. I set up my equipment near the pear model station and chose the oil paints that I need. 

     I began painting the pears by drawing an outline of the pear shapes with a light-blue paint. In order to do this, I needed to dip my brush into the paint dissolving solution then the light-blue oil paint. Then I began mixing colors to match the color of the first pear, which was a brownish-green, a yellowish-green, and a light-green color. After a couple of attempts, I finally made the desired colors and colored inside and a bit over the light-blue outline. Then I moved onto the next pear, which had a yellow-brown and yellow-green color, and colored in the outline. After fully coloring the pears, I went on to create the color of the background, which took me a while to replicate it accurately, and colored it in. With the main details of the painting done, I went on to create the shadows, which was just a darker version of the original color. Finally, I created the stems of the pears and finished. The teacher told me that the painting will take a week to dry and to keep dust off of it. I took my artwork and went home. 

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.

The Counter is the first ever show I have been to, and to be frank, I walked in there with the expectation of it will be boring and I won’t really care or be affected by the show. I ended up being entirely wrong, I actually really enjoyed the show and was amazed how the director was able send such a strong message using just one set and only 3 actors.

The simplicity of the coffee shop was perfect fitting for the simplicity of Katy. She says how she is content with having a front porch, watching Netflix, and going on walks. However, at the end she ends up opening up the truth of what she really wants in life, but does her inability to have kids due to getting her ovaries taken out is holding her back, and keeping her in a shell. After she opens up to Paul, she ends up getting over her issue, maybe not completely, but over it enough to go talk to her ex situationship.

Paul is an extremely troubled character who at first seemed like a simple man, who just enjoys his morning coffee, but eventually opens up to Katy expressing how miserable in life is, and how every day he is living such a boring life and already knows what happens. He does not state he is depressed, but he says that he wants to die at a random time within the next 2 months so he will be taken by surprised when he dies. This is clearly a sign of depression, but he claims he is not depressed and does not need help. Paul ends up showing some positive signs of his mental health towards the end as he gets excited when he sees such an impact he’d had on Katy and how she surprised him by going to hangout with her ex.

The relationship between Katy and Paul starts off rocky, as Katy is a bit weary about it and is reluctant to say yes to telling secrets and giving each other tough talks, but these tough talks end up saving each other as the tough talks got Katy to hangout with her ex and got Paul to rekindle his relationship with the doctor. This show portrays the beauty of friendship and how important it is to have a friend to talk to and it will be life changing.

All in all, my first experience with a show was very present and I hope to see one again soon, maybe a bigger show with more sets and actors.

Art Lab felt like a blend of different junctures on my art appreciation journey. On one level, it was a regression to a bygone experience of art in my life. My friends and I were in an oil painting class with an instructor, trying our best to mimic the scene in front of us. This recalled my childhood experience of art as the exercise of a skill: developing a technical ability to mimic reality on a canvas. On the other hand, I gained thematic value from observing some of the art pieces which lined the walls, which is how I conceive of art’s value today. 

 

First, I spent my time in an oil painting class. The instructor, an artist herself, explained the process behind her realistic art. She starts abstractly and gradually attempts to replicate real world sights. These include apples and views from Staten Island.

My impression of the overall style of her works is that realism feels antiquated. I gain nothing exceptional from these images of fruit and a boat that a photograph couldn’t have communicated in the same way. That is not to say that a realistic painting has no value. However, a realistic painting does not provide any substantial unique value in terms of the medium itself. Realist art is impressive as far as the mechanics. A person is accomplishing what only a camera can do. However, creativity is limited in the painting process because the artist feels no need to communicate a message. In the same way that abstract expressionists rely on obscurity in lieu of a message, contemporary realist painters rely on their expertise. Their work is based on the notion that they don’t need to do the difficult work of revealing some theme of value because they can stand on their own competency. The vapidness of realism was confirmed by my own experience of actually performing oil painting.

 

I chose to paint pumpkins.

Initially, I believed that I would try to convey a message. I thought that the variation in the sizes of the pumpkins coupled with their closeness would convey that diverse things can meld well together. This kind of intentionality is artistic. It is the same reason why a photographer is an artist; they choose the subject and how to frame it. However, as soon as I began painting, my higher-order artistic thinking went out the window. All that was on my mind was how to produce the most accurate paint colors, paint the shadows and display all of the pertinent marks of the pumpkins. The artistry ceased once the shot was chosen and thus the resemblance to photography ended. That is because the goal of my realist art was to put my mental image on paper, unclouded by themes or emotions. The entire exercise felt juvenile, hearkening back to a time when the best artist in the class was the person who was most adept at using the medium. I feel like my view of “good art” has matured since that time. It is no longer based on adroitness in wetting the brush just enough to produce aesthetically pleasing strokes. Instead, it is found in the imagination which went into the piece, whether that was the thought behind what subjects to depict or how to depict them. One could argue that when one nails down the technical skills enough, one has the room to add in inventiveness. Professional artists are likely concerned with the message of their work no matter the genre. However, if the art is photorealistic, then there is no original thought beyond the initial framing phase. A painter of realism is best served by being as machine-like as possible.

Due to the emptiness of realism, my favorite part of my finished painting is my name. That part feels personal and infused with authentic thought unlike the remainder of the work.

 

The art on the walls of the Art Lab reminded me of where I find the substance in art.

First, this painting resonated with me because it has the elements which realism is missing. Through its manipulation of the size of objects, it conveys relative significance. That the sculpture, guitar and bottle of wine tower over the city exhibits that the arts and the bars are what the artist finds beloved in urban life. The relative size also relays the primacy of the individual. Rather than the collective force of the city, the objects which matter to a specific individual are given visual priority. Additionally, the purple colored sky conveys tranquility. The artist is communicating that they find immense solace in the highlighted aspects of their life.

Second, where I can appreciate realism is in the above painting, which also graced the Art Lab walls. The artistic value is found in the setting choice. In fact, this image would make for a photograph which is just as beautiful. The painting depicts an object of possession in a way Berger would have despised, but I find it quite charming. The image embodies the success of retirement. The caption ought to be: a person sighs with satisfaction and takes one last look from the dock at their boat after a long day of wading through the sea. What is picturesque is not even so much the sunset, but that the sunset feels like it is a merited reward. The spectator is placed in the shoes of a person who has earned the luxuries of island life after years of material acquisition. The sun is setting on one’s life and yet, this painting captures that one still has many moments left to relish in one’s own greatness. I don’t look forward to aging, but this painting makes me question whether I should. One dreams of coming to a point in life where one can just bask in all their accomplishments. There is nothing which says wallowing in one’s own success like buying a boat, which fulfills no practical need other than that very human impulse for delighting in one’s own preeminence.

 

The Counter does a fantastic job of posing friendship as the answer to the question of why live. The world is lonely, tragic and even boring, but friendship is life-affirming and agentic.

First, The Counter centers the viewer in a familiar setting to our own. Although in a rural town that differs from Staten Island’s suburban atmosphere, it is also an atomized world. Katie watches Netflix and goes on walks on her own. Life’s highlights are the movies and the grand opening of the new Whole Foods. The best part of Paul’s day is his conversation with the woman who serves him his morning coffee before a deep relationship even develops between them. It is telling that the characters are so removed from social institutions that their close relationships are with those who facilitate their consumption. That is because too often in the modern world, one’s identity is not built by human connection but by isolated consumption, whether of films or morning coffee. One might share their streaming site passwords with others, but the streaming itself is a secluded endeavor. It is simply not possible to share consumption, and so life remains solitary.

Friendship offers something substantive to share: one’s life. A true friend is the kind Paul describes towards the beginning of the play. A friend is a person who can be relied on and who can help one deal with life’s problems. This cliche definition is revealed to have tremendous utility in explaining the value of friendship. As Paul and Katie share their secrets with each other like some kind of teenage party game, they end up becoming each other’s backbones in their respective struggles trying to escape their lives. Paul had judged Katie for leaving her city life behind and Katie Paul’s adultery and suicidal ideation. However, they came to empathize with one another and comprehend why they each felt so desperate for an escape hatch. Furthermore, the play demonstrates that sharing lives involves not merely sympathetic spectating, but actively participating in each other’s lives. For instance, Katie encourages Paul to learn Italian and pursue his forbidden love. Additionally, the revelation of Katie’s hysterectomy pulls Paul off the edge because each was a stakeholder in the story of the other. However, the unparalleled instance which profoundly conveys that friendship entails being contributors to one another’s lives is when an exhilarated Paul pushes Katie to reunite with the guy who friendzoned her. He grabs her by the shoulders and effectively wills her out of the door of the cafe to go meet him. Katie trusts Paul because he has become her pillar, just as she has become his. The play’s ending thus imparts that the friendship bond-the sharing of a life-is not only one of mutual confidants and advisors, but active partners who help one another be the best versions of themselves.

Second, friendship is posited as a remedy for life’s tragic nature. The Counter claims life is tragic because of its inevitable calamities. This is indicated by Paul’s description of the powerlessness he feels in fending off aging and the grief which remains from the deaths of his close family members. As a result of this grim perspective, Paul views control over his own death as the only area where he can exert some measure of autonomy. In correspondence with this, Katie found herself paralyzed, in her case by illness and unforeseeable relationship issues. She seeks to control her own destiny by exercising her freedom to escape. Escape is conceived of as the one choice people are left with during an unmanageable catastrophe. Yet, escape is an anti-social choice. It is clear how that is true of suicide. The extreme ghosting Katie engages in-the moving seven hours away kind of ghosting-is also an attempt to break loose from social connection. Although she is fleeing the discomfort that comes with being friendzoned, a fundamental part of relationships is that they don’t always turn out how one expects.There is another person involved after all. Thus, Katie’s ghosting is an escape from discomfiture which is intrinsic to mutual social connection. 

As opposed to escape’s disengagement from others, friendship rectifies a part of life’s pains in one simple sense because it provides a shoulder to cry on. Paul details how he is tired of hearing shallow remarks of comfort as he walks in the street. He despises Peg’s pity. Pity is the surface-level sadness one expresses at the misfortune of another. True friendship means empathy, which is suffering with another person-not expressing heartache at another’s pain in a way which makes them feel inferior. For instance, a friend’s empathy is how Katie divulges her secret illness history. She displays that she feels compelled enough by the pain of Paul’s story to share her own with him.

A second more complex way that friendship resolves the inherent tragedy of life is that it provides a measure of dignity. Paul hates pity because it robs him of his self-respect. Friendship not only provides compassion which doesn’t demean a person, but is a mechanism for autonomy, which produces pride. Unlike the great careers and life partners Paul had waited for, Paul consciously chooses to open himself up and court the friendship of Katie. He makes a move at the counter and admits he isn’t happy being an acquaintance. Friendship cannot be accomplished by idleness. It requires people to break the ice and continually reinvest their energy into caring about one another. A true friendship is something which requires taking responsibility and making a continuous commitment to prioritize the relationship. Paul is a little shocked that Katie is upset about his being sick for a day. However, he shouldn’t be. She is his friend and in being such, had taken on the mantle of overseeing his well-being. One lesson of Paul and Katie’s relationship is that the fundamental ennobling choice of one’s life is whether one takes a deep interest in the lives of the people around them. 

Third, The Counter asserts that friendship infuses life with novelty. This is because people get bored of themselves. On one occasion, Paul laments that he has gotten the gist of life’s monotonous routine. On another, he says that if he doesn’t sleep, he just talks to himself for hours. Arguably, Paul finds life dull because nearly all of his life is spent talking to himself. His life is only kept stimulating because he has another person in Katie-whose mind he does not have access to-with whom to share his thoughts. Even Paul’s hobby of learning Italian is intrinsically communicative. Since he is not going to Italy, the value he gains from the pastime comes from speaking to Katie in Italian. 

Friendship is gripping because there is usually always something to learn about one’s friend. Even when one thinks they have learned it all, built-in to human relations is that two minds cannot see each other’s thoughts. As long as there is no telepathy, human beings will be forced to face one unknown, which is the other. The whole reason why Paul and Katie-why any human beings for that matter-can have a back and forth dialogue where they have “fights” and not gauge each other’s responses is because they are of separate minds. This trait gives friendships dynamism, which comes with both instability and innovation. Paul is looking for “surprise” which is why he would like Katie to decide when to kill him. He can’t access the thought process of a friend and as a result, Katie being given discretion means he wouldn’t know when his death is coming. Paul was banking on the precariousness of friendship. Sometimes people freak out and overreact to things. If Katie were to kill him, it would be because she had lost her mind. As Paul says, people do that on occasion. Instead, Paul discovers that friendship can produce an optimistic form of surprise-the unexpected progress of a friend. At the end of the play, Katie’s situationship comes to meet her in town. Paul is enlivened by the new developments in her relationship and the potential for her to not only connect with a great guy but repair what has broken her for years. Katie declares this series of events the “surprise” Paul had been looking for. That is because friendship brings constant newness. Friendship provides the potential for one’s companion to unpredictably alter their circumstances and thought processes. Personal change is premeditated, but constructive change in a friend’s life is something one only catches glimpses of when it is shared with them. Paul got in on the ground floor of bettering a friend’s life, which is the exact kind of new modulation he ached for.

One could come away from The Counter feeling depressed. The play explores the idea that all people are in a sense waiting for the aging process and death to rob them of everything they ever had or loved. In fact, it is helpful to conceive of life as waiting in a waiting room. There is nothing more soulless than that. One may skim through magazines, but they provide nothing of substance. Additionally, the strangers one sits across from may curl their lips into a semi-smile for a moment but they will immediately retreat into their own distant world. To top it all off, one is impotent in speeding up what feels like an endless process. The Counter asks one to imagine that a close friend has walked into this waiting room. The atmosphere changes completely. In addition to fixing the loneliness of not having someone to delay life with, the presence of a buddy actually ends the eventless interlude. First, speaking with a friend ends the tyranny of the staff who usher in the next appointment. One partakes actively in friendship rather than being idle and letting the outside world dictate one’s “waiting room” experience. This agency is paramount to a joyful life. Additionally, whereas one had lacked spirit, one gains seemingly limitless energy. This is because a person is no longer imprisoned with their own thoughts. Instead, one has surprises at their fingertips in the form of hearing about their friend’s experiences and living through this new experience together. This is how a single friend can transform the gray paint on the walls of the doctor’s office waiting room into a vibrant rainbow. The Counter expresses that friendship makes life worth living because it stops the lonely, feebling and insipid waiting in its tracks. Katie was Paul’s waitress. By the end of the show, she is his friend.