🍹 The Bartender

Who plays who

• A — The Bartender: you are closing up and you have already decided who gets to stay.
• B — The Last Customer: one drink left in the glass and nowhere you need to be.
• A leads Acts 1–2 and Act 4; B takes the lead for Act 3.

What you need

• A real drink, actually made properly, for each of you — alcohol optional
• A counter, table or kitchen island to lean on
• A coaster, used as the safeword prop and set down in plain sight
• Something to close with — a cloth, a light switch, a locked door

Act 1 — 🕯️ Setup

The lights are half down and the bar is your own counter, wiped clean. You are the last customer, and the bartender has not started stacking chairs. The coaster goes down in front of you without being asked.

Beats

• The bartender closes the bar properly: wipe, stack, count the till, and leave one light on.
• The customer stays put and does not ask for a refill yet.
• The first real conversation is about anything except why you are both still here.

Lines to say

• "We're closed. But you're already sitting down."
• "One more, or are you going home?"
• "What do you drink when nobody's pouring?"

Act 2 — 🔥 Build

The glass is empty and neither of you has mentioned it. The bartender keeps working — one more wipe, one more stack — and starts describing the special drink nobody ordered. Every ingredient is a thing they will not name outright.

Beats

• The bartender describes the "special drink" in detail, and never says what is in it.
• The customer guesses at each ingredient; the bartender only ever answers "closer".
• The glass stays empty. Nothing is poured yet.

Lines to say

• "Off-menu. I only make it for people who stay till the end."
• "Guess again. You're warm."
• "It's better if you don't know what's in it."

Act 3 — ⚡ Escalate

The customer decides to take the drink on their own terms, and the bartender lets them run the bar for once. They move to the customer's side of the counter, and the bottle is finally in play. Whatever is mixed now is not for drinking.

Beats

• The customer sets the rules: what gets poured, where, and how much.
• The bartender serves exactly as instructed, without improvising.
• Both of you move to the same side of the counter and stay there.

Lines to say

• "Pour it. Not the glass — me."
• "You keep the bottle. You keep pouring until I say when."
• "Say what you've wanted all night, like it's an order."

Act 4 — 💥 Climax

The bottle is on the counter and the last call is long past. There is nothing left to mix and neither of you is going anywhere. The bar stays open as long as you both want it to.

Beats

• No narration, no talk of cleaning up, no clock on the wall.
• Use what Act 3 built: the order, the bottle, the side of the counter.
• Let it end the way your bodies want.

Lines to say

• "Look at me. Don't look at the door."
• "That's it. Stay right there."
• "Say my name like you're still ordering."

Act 5 — 🤍 Aftercare

The bottle is capped and the counter is wiped for real this time, and the lights come all the way up. You are two people in your own kitchen.

Beats

• Come back to your own names out loud — bartender and customer are finished.
• Drink actual water and eat something, because the drinks were real.
• Say one thing you would order again and one you would leave off the tab.

Lines to say

• "Best last call I've ever had."
• "Next time I want to be the one behind the bar."

Aftercare

Lights up, bottle away, and water instead of anything else. Say one thing you liked and one you want next time, out loud, at the counter, before either of you leaves the kitchen. The one who played the bartender should be told clearly, in plain words, that the drink was wanted — and that the bar was never real.

Ground rules and consent

• The bar is our own kitchen and the last call is pretend — there is no real public place and no one else is here.
• "Coaster" stops everything in one second, said by either of us, no explanation owed.
• The drinks are real; drinking is optional. Nobody has to finish anything for the scene to keep going.
• Last call is the only exit: we stay in character until one of us calls it, and then we say so in plain words.

Before you play it, Blindfold play covers the parts that are hard to improvise.

Frequently asked