Review: THE COUNTER - Coffee, Contemplation, and Connection at MOXIE Theatre

In “The Counter,” Meghan Kennedy places us in a small-town diner, where coffee is always brewing and regulars never need to look at the menu. Here, waitress Katie and diner customer Paul are two lonely people who find a connection over coffee and conversation, and a chance to change each other's lives.

Katie (Kate Rose Reynolds) is a waitress who knows when to expect someone and has their cup of coffee poured and the pastry ready. She came to this small town two years ago, and in that time, she’s built a peaceful routine: prep the diner, friendly nods to familiar faces, small talk with each person about how they're doing, and then doing the same tomorrow. Paul (Mark Stevens) is one of those regulars, in so much so that she could probably set her clock by him arriving just after she flips over the sign in the window from Closed to Open every morning.

As the mornings pass, Paul proposes that this casual customer service relationship become more friendly, something closer to real friends. “We tell each other secrets. We help each other sort through things.” He suggests this with the practiced nonchalance of someone who has been thinking about this for a while. At first, Katie resists; she’s at work, and this feels oddly personal, but as their mornings stretch on, she warms to the idea.

To be fair, she doesn’t have much of a choice. Paul’s attention is relentless in a way that may resonate with anyone who’s ever worked in hospitality and had a customer overstep. He had already made quietly unsettling observations before this "friendly" request. “Seems like you wash your hair on Mondays and Thursdays,” he muses. “I can smell it when you pour my coffee.” (Does this diner have HR? Because that’s a no from me)

As their unlikely friendship deepens, Paul makes a request that jolts the play out of its sleepy small town rhythm and into something darker: he wants Katie to kill him by poisoning his coffee on some unspecified morning. He says it’s because he’s tired of a life that no longer surprises him, though other factors are revealed later.

Reynolds gives a strong performance that is thoughtful, funny, and layered with a vulnerability that deepens over time. She brings depth to Katie, and her eventual late-play reveal lands with genuine emotional weight and gives more context to her solitude. It’s touching, and it deserves more space earlier in the show. 

Stevens is warm and conversational as Paul but with an affable neediness. However, the writing doesn’t give him enough emotional intricacy to make him or his request more compelling. Kara Tuckfield appears as an old flame of Paul’s, though the script gives her little to do.

Directed by Desireé Clark Miller, the production moves at a meditative pace and a quiet beauty.  It allows audiences to become lulled into the sleepiness of the town, and then into the characters themselves.  It is the slow drip coffee equivalent of emotional development; either you like the slow build of the complexities, or you find the process more time-consuming than it needs.

 Julie Lorenz’s diner set is beautifully realized, down to the chalkboard specials and the charming main street visible through the main window. Colby Freel’s lighting gently marks the passage of time and halos characters during introspective moments. Janelle Arnold’s costumes are as no-nonsense and functional as the characters and suited to the setting.

"The Counter" clearly wants to remind us of the healing power of human connection while exploring vulnerability and hope and resisting the temptation to run away from it all.

How To Get Tickets

“The Counter” plays at Moxie Theatre through June 1st.  For ticket and showtime information, go to www.moxietheatre.com 

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