A crusty hermit of a man—complete with bushy beard—wanders into a rundown coffee shop, sits at his habitual counter-stool, and downs his daily cup of caffeine while indulging in typical badinage with a not-especially interesting, not-especially interested, generic-type waitress.
Or so we are led to think in the opening scenes of The Counter, Meghan Kennedy’s intriguing new play at the Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre. Add Anthony Edwards and Susannah Flood, two excellent actors who illuminate the not-at-all generic inner lives of the seemingly simple characters, and the silent-but-canny directorial hand of David Cromer, and you’ve got an intensely provocative new American play.
Kennedy, author of Napoli, Brooklyn and Too Much, Too Much, Too Many (both of which also originated at the Roundabout), sets her drama in a small-town breakfast spot in upstate New York. “Way upstate,” per the program, in one of those under-populated, isolated spots. “When’s the last time you had a conversation in this town that was about more than the ice on the roads?” Paul asks as the pair launch into a series of conversations about everything but ice on the roads.
Waitress Katie (Flood) seems more than content to hide behind her counter, where she appears to have only one customer. Paul (Edwards) clearly appreciates Katie’s daily presence in his life, enumerating his reasons: “For one, you make good coffee with a bad machine”—a phrase emblematic of the flavorful nature of Kennedy’s dialogue.
Paul appears to be a shy loner with little past and no future, while Katie is a much-younger loner with hidden past and questionable future. (“Certain things, no matter how much we want them, will never be ours,” Paul observes, “like spirit. Or courage.”) That said, it is revealed—in a late, brief scene with a third character, town doctor Peg (Amy Warren)—that the world-weary Paul does indeed have a heroic past, while Katie has a courageous back-story as well.
Over the course of 10 mornings—which is to say, short scenes which combine to form the brisk 75-minute play—Kennedy reveals the facets of her duo as if she were peeling flavorful Vidalias. Details bring out surprises, the pair going through something of a courtship through secrets revealed as if in a game. It is not a game, though. Kennedy flirts with clichés but doesn’t succumb to a single one. She has been original enough to contrive a tale in which the lonely customer and the lonely waitress, both of whom are hiding from life (and not without reason), do not end up rescued within each other’s arms. Imagine that!
Edwards skillfully inhabits his role, crusty from the start but always hinting at the rounded character which is eventually revealed. Last seen in the Cromer-directed production of Prayer for the French Republic, Edwards comes to the stage after a long and successful Hollywood career beginning in the early 1990s with notably intelligent performances in such series as ER and Northern Exposure. If Flood is less familiar to audiences—her stage credits include Birthday Candles, Staff Meal and Cromer’s production of Lucy Prebble’s The Effect—she gives a striking performance. Those sitting in the front sections of the small theatre will likely be charmed by her facile facial expressions. Warren, whom we first saw as the memorably unlikely romantic interest in Cromer’s astonishing 2008 musical Adding Machine, does wonders with her small role. Rounding out the dialogue is a set of voicemail messages, recorded by actor Will Brill (currently in Stereophonic, formerly in Cromer’s A Case for the Existence of God).
Upon entering the auditorium, one can’t help but notice Walt Spangler’s oddly askew set. The narrow coffee shop is not laid out in the obvious stage right to stage left manner but back to front, the counter thrust from the upstage wall toward the audience. This makes for awkward sightlines, and might leave you wondering what you will be able to see (and won’t be able to see) from your seat. This fractured view has been purposely contrived by Cromer and Spangler, of course; it works marvelously, forcing us to take a different-than-usual look at this different-than-it-seems play and characters. Spangler has dressed the set with deft touches: a coin-operated gumball machine by the door, a stack of large cans of Chock Full o’Nuts piled under the counter, a ’60s-era baby seat and stock of crayons hidden in the upstage corner, and more. Sarah Laux’s not-very-many costumes are just right, with lighting design by Stacey Derosier and sound by Christopher Darbassie contributing to the atmosphere.
Throughout, one can sense the invisible hand of Cromer, who in addition to the various above-mentioned productions is responsible for the uniquely exciting musicals The Band’s Visit and Dead Outlaw. Just a couple of people sitting across an old counter over old coffee cups, it seems. But the unobtrusive director provides an undercurrent of electricity and mystery, culminating in a climactic moment when the characters are propelled from their respective shells into almost violent contact.
There is a short history of similar excellent plays waged over similar lunch counters: Robert E. Sherwood’s The Petrified Forest and William Inge’s Bus Stop come to mind. The Counter is also somewhat similar in feeling to, if different in content from, Eboni Booth’s 2024 Pulitzer-winner Primary Trust. Another unheralded small-town, upstate play which originated at the Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre.
That’s a high quality group, and The Counter fits right in. Kennedy deals in secrets and grief and escape, in running away and starting again, and most crucially in standing in front of a suddenly opened door: You either stay inside, crushed by your habitual fear and unhappiness, or bravely walk through.
The Counter opened October 9, 2024, at the Laura Pels Theatre and runs through November 17. Tickets and information: roundabouttheatre.org
