“The Counter” at the Laura Pels Theatre (Photo: Joan Marcus)

Twenty-five years ago this week, the movie Fight Club opened in theaters. The nihilistic cinematic masterpiece tackled toxic masculinity before the term had entered the common lexicon. At first glance, David Fincher’s movie would seem to have little in common with Meghan Kennedy’s new, diner-centered play The Counter at Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre. But both works explore isolation and grief with central characters seeking to counteract the numbness of life with surprise, even if that surprise comes at the expense of their own well-being.

More or less a two-hander, The Counter tells the story of Paul (Anthony Edwards), a late middle-aged insomniac who eats breakfast at the same diner every day, and Katie (Susannah Flood), the early middle-aged waitress who works there six days a week, who thinks of Paul as “a friendly customer.” At the start of the play, two years into this arrangement, Paul proposes that they become friends – real friends – and tell each other their secrets. Paul divulges that he’s an alcoholic. Katie’s secret is that she has, in addiction recovery parlance, done a geographic; she’s moved to escape heartbreak. Then Paul reveals he is interested in pulling a different kind of geographic; fed up with life’s predictability and guilty about things he’s done, he asks Katie to poison him when he isn’t expecting it, a final surprise.

The Counter lives or dies on the performances. Luckily, Edwards and Flood are very engaging performers who create grounded characters and hit the emotionally fraught high notes when the play demands it. Edwards’s Paul is understated, yet he holds your attention throughout. When a third actor, Amy Warren as Peg (who is also great), briefly joins the action, she and Edwards share a brief nonverbal exchange that is both heartwarming and heart-wrenching. Meanwhile, Flood creates an onion of a character, peeling back layer after layer until she exposes herself completely.

Meghan Kennedy’s script deserves a lot of credit, too. The dialogue is natural, the characters are three-dimensional, and we get to know them as they get to know each other. Even though so much of the play is spent learning about Paul and Katie, nothing feels expository. And it doesn’t hurt that Kennedy is able to accomplish what she sets out to do in a slim 75 minutes. As a result, I was engaged throughout.

The play does have some shortcomings, though. Little questions kept popping up while I was watching. Isn’t there someone in the kitchen cooking? Would being poisoned really seem like a surprise one could look forward to? Why won’t Katie be arrested and convicted for murdering Paul? But neither the niggling questions nor the play’s brief departures from realism that distract and offer little value detracted greatly from the experience of seeing these characters work through the challenges Kennedy has set up.

Props to the play’s director, David Cromer, who leans into the understated nature of the show. The pacing is crisp and the tone consistent throughout. Set, lighting, costume, and sound all work in harmony to create a convincing picture. Walt Spangler’s set, a small, nondescript counter in a small, nondescript diner, is right for the action. It’s a trivial point, but I really appreciated the color of the dreary grey backdrop for its evocation of inclement weather throughout. Sarah Laux’s costumes are appropriately drab.

I suppose the themes of isolation and grief will always feel current, but somehow they seem especially relevant today, even more so than in the pre-9/11, early-internet era of Fight Club. In an age where social media creates the illusion of community while actually driving us apart, The Counter’s message is a welcome one. The way to happiness is to work through pain and grief and form connections with those around us.