In Meghan Kennedy’s one-act play “The Counter,” waitress Katie and customer Paul have established a well-worn routine.
Every Monday through Saturday morning at 6 a.m., Paul is the first customer through the door at the Main Street Diner, where Katie pours him a cup or two of coffee, then he drops a few dollars on the counter and leaves, often without them exchanging a single word.
For two years, they’ve maintained this cool but courteous distance until Paul breaks the ice one morning, hoping to spark a conversation, and then a friendship, so he can ask Katie for a big favor.
Paul, a retired fireman who has lost his spark for life following a series of losses, is subtly and sympathetically played by Mark Stevens. And Katie, a taciturn woman in her 30s who has run away from her former life following a humiliating breakup, is played with sharp-eyed wariness and a fiery edge by Kate Rose Reynolds.
The entire 80-minute play is presented as a series of short scenes chronicling Paul’s daily arrivals, and how these polite strangers slowly, sometimes awkwardly and sometimes angrily, find their way toward friendship and helping one another.
Directed with a quiet rhythm by Moxie executive artistic director Desireé Clarke Miller, “The Counter” is the kind of story that could only work onstage, not TV or film, because there’s not a lot of action as the story gently and gradually unspools like a meditation on loneliness.
Helping to bring authenticity to the production is the wonderful scenic design by Julie Lorenz, with a working coffee machine and fully outfitted diner. And Colby Freel’s lighting design effectively signals the age of time. Janelle Arnold designed costumes and Eliza Vedar designed sound.
While the situations in the play are unique, the relationship the characters have — seeing each other every day but never bothering to scratch below the surface to learn more about one another — is plausible.
And when a third character briefly visits the diner, the married doctor Peg, who Paul is in love with (played by Kara Tuckfield), she offers a window into Paul’s soul that Katie has never bothered to see or ask about.
The play feels timely in 2025, as Americans increasingly distance themselves from strangers, afraid to take that first step toward understanding someone else’s thoughts, opinions and pain. But in “The Counter,” Paul and Katie do take that leap and help each other get unstuck from the routines that have walled off their hearts.
‘The Counter’
When: 7 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Through June 7
Where: Moxie Theatre, 6663 El Cajon Blvd., Ste. N, Rolando
Tickets: $20-$48
Phone: 858-598-7620
Online: moxietheatre.com
