Tough Talk: The Counter Review
Justis Bolding and Tim DeKay in The Counter. Photo by Curtis Brown Photography
Theaterworks Hartford’s 40th season presents The Counter, an intimate production that walks through stages of grief while reminding us that we all need somebody to lean on. The Counter quashes the notion that big life moments need to happen in grand spaces, countering with the idea that, if given the chance, the people in your life can be the true element of surprise you’ve been missing.
Set in a cafe way upstate, Katie (Justis Bolding) takes her life a day at a time, serving coffee and the occasional slice of cake to her early morning patrons whose days she jump-starts. Of those patrons, Paul (Tim DeKay) leans all the way in, taking a chance to turn their early morning pleasantries into something much more—friendship. Paul rips the band-aid off with a proposition of friendship, the ultimate container for secrets of the heart, and shocks Katie with a big ask. Katie, a runaway with a propensity for evasive maneuvering, accepts Paul’s challenge of friendship and the tumult of the unsolicited honesty and care with which it comes. The days go on, Katie and Paul’s friendship unfurls, and the two become better for it.
Bolding is a balance between grounded maturity and coming-of-age uncertainty, honoring the ambiguity of those figure-it-out years and the perpetual “are we there yet?” of the ever-elusive adulthood. DeKay is delicate in the unfolding of Paul’s traumas, showing the necessary reverence for the ebbs of joy and the flows of melancholy. The pair breathe life into platonic chemistry, rendering the years between them mere plot points.
The set design of Tijana Bjelajac, emphasized by the lighting design of Matthew Richards, achieves a visually precise and dramatically generous tone with its own embedded stories. The collaboration of cast and crew provides an experience that feels both new and familiar.
Though The Counter’s run has come to an end, visit https://twhartford.org/ to check out what’s next for the season.
