‘Instructor’s Name’
David Ives "Sure Thing"
‘Sure Thing’ is a play written by David Ives, which was fist staged in the year 1988, in New York City. It is one of the six one –act plays, which forms Ives’ collection of plays titled ‘All in the timing’. It is a short comedy, which focuses primarily on wordplay and dialogues. The play offers a multitude of variations, in which a conversation between a man and woman could progress, and is a highly witty satire on men-women bonding. One of the remarkable aspects of the play is its lack of any form of stage direction, and its complete reliance on language. It offers profound insights into gendered thinking and despite its laconic length it is a great read. Ives’ ‘Sure thing’ uses wit and humor, to reveal how a few words spoken/unspoken in a particular context, can change the entire nature of a relationship between two persons.
The play recounts a meeting between two strangers. The male character, Bill, tries to approach and have a conversation with the female character, Betty, who is dining alone on a Friday night. The play starts with the classic pick up line a boy uses on a girl.
Bill. Excuse me. Is this chair taken?
Betty. Excuse me?
Bill. Is this taken?
Betty. Yes, it is.
Bill. Oh. Sorry.
Betty. Sure thing.
Bill is not able to add any clever rejoinder to Betty’s ‘seat is taken’ remark and mumbles ‘sure thing’, and these words usually mark an end to the exchange, but herein lies the surprise of the play. Instead of taking the conversation from there, the author introduces an offstage bell at this point, and the whole conversation is repeated now with different lines. When a girl says the seat is taken in real life, it usually marks the clumsy death of the causal flirtation. However in this play, Bill is allowed to revisit the moments and make another remark, thus allowing him a second chance to correct his mistakes. Like this the whole play progresses, with the bell intruding when there is an inappropriate response from either character, and allows them to correct their response. Both the characters correct and re-correct their conversation, till they finally find the right nuance, and the right approach which makes their casual acquaintance blossom into a romantic relationship. The result of their attempts is a witty, humorous and entertaining play, which in its own way conveys the ‘mystery of time and human existence’.
There are only two characters in this play, Bill and Betty, and they espouse the typical gender behavior of that era. Bill, seeing a young girl all by herself in a café tries to enter into a conversation, and hopefully in a relation with her. Betty, seeing a young man trying to impress her is cautious yet intrigued. The play’s primary focus is how a relationship is forged between these two characters. Through these characters Ives has tried to shed light on, all those things that come as a barrier in a conversation/relationship between a man and a woman. Some of the reactions exhibited by these characters are typical behavior of their gender, like Betty shying away when she realizes Bill is a mama’s boy, and Bill ending the chat when he finds out Betty is from the distant place of Pakistan.
Bill: Hi.
Betty: Hi.
Bill: Do you come in here a lot?
Betty: Actually I’m just in town for two days from Pakistan.
Bill: Oh, Pakistan. (Bell.)
The plot of the play, which defies logic and is unstructured, reveals more about human emotions than a logically constructed structured play would have. This short play, which lasts only for few minutes on stage, succeeds in providing the audience a microcosm of human emotions. Each time when the bill rings and the romance crashes, the characters reinvent not just possibilities to revive their romance but in the process reinvent their personalities as well. Betty transforms from a cold ‘yes this seat is taken’, to a friendlier ‘where is college’ as the plot progresses. Bill too transforms from a person who thinks ‘the Sound and the Fury’ was written by Hemingway, to a person who is pretty knowledgeable about literature. Thus, the author has elucidated how human emotions and personalities change with time, and how human beings try to overcome the insurmountable obstacle of communication in a relationship.
This play can be rated as both ‘enjoyable literature’ and good literature’, because Ives has made expert use of various literary elements, such as characters, setting, plot, dialogue and themes. The setting of this play is nothing grand, but a simple coffee shop. This setting would evoke a familiar situation in many people’s mind. Most people would have encountered a situation in their life, where they told something to a stranger during a casual exchange in a café, and walked away wishing they could have said something more appropriate or witty. Relationships are important components of a person’s life and lives are evolved around them. The play beautifully conveys how these relationships could make or break with a few words.
Beneath the humor and light-hearted plot of the ‘sure thing’, there lies a serious message about existential loneliness. The funny and quirky dialogues of the play, offer a comical look into how people undergo a process of self invention when trying to forge a relationship, and how sometimes they modify their personality to be accepted by others. Through this play Ives conveys, the unpredictability and instability of human relationships and absurdity of language. The play also showcases the staunch belief Ives has on the redemptive power of love. In this play despite a series of miscommunications, the characters are allowed to progress towards a relationship and romance exists as a possibility- if nothing more.
Works Cited
Ives, David. Sure Thing. 1988. Web. 11 March 2014.
