Kirtricia Copeland
ENG 1102 13T4
Dr. Roger Fontana, Instructor
21 April 2013 Sure Thing by David Ives
Sure Thing is a short comic play by David Ives including the meeting of two characters. The play begins with Bill approaching Betty in a café, asking "Is this chair taken?" To which she replies “Yes.” The bell rings and Bill repeats his question to which Betty says, “No, but I'm expecting somebody in a minute.” The bells rings again, and Bill poses his question again. This process continues until Bill is finally allowed to take a seat. The entire conversation is comedic and gives a different approach to the questions they are asking each other after the bell rings. I think that it is a lighthearted play. The setting have you as if you are there watching them have the conversation. Everything seemed unrehearsed and even though conversations do not take place like this it was an interesting play. When the bell rings they start their new conversation off with the last thing they discussed with a little comedic twist. The symbolic title of this play, “Sure Thing,” points to the need for a sure thing when dating. Throughout the entire play there is almost always one character that is looking for a sure thing in a relationship and in most of the situations this causes a bell to sound. In the beginning when Betty does not know Bill, to dismiss him she says “Sure Thing”. At the end she closes with “Sure Thing” now that she has made certain that Bill is in fact a sure thing. In the beginning we only see the relationship advancing when one of the characters takes a chance, such as in Betty letting Bill sit down with her, Ives incorporates this to let the readers know that sure things do not lead to normative relationships. She could tell that he was a sure thing by the end when she asked him if he would love and cherish her. Bill replying yes indicated that he knew that she was a sure thing also.
