Mario Nobre
ENC 1102
Professor Peter D’etorre
December, 2014
Dramatic Essay
Have you ever wondered if you had the endless chance to get a relationship right if you would actually find the perfect partner? According to one author the answer is “yes.” David Ives’ play “Sure Thing” shows us how people have expectations from us and how we unconsciously tend to pretend to be someone we are not just so we remain on the safe side, only placing us on a superficial relationship. In his play, David Ives has a talent to generate a comedy where a couple meets a café and engage in a ritual of small talks, however, Ives’ wit in engaging as you quickly become a little confused at the beginning of the story, but as you read along, unconsciously you begin to…show more content… In between the lines, Ives manages to toss in unexpected phrases like, “So what if I don’t have a penis?”, where you gulp, gasp or laugh but you definitely widen your eyes. Such phrases come as surprise as you read, even though you clearly grasp the awkwardness between the couple, due to its fast pace. With this same tactic, Ives targets the reader or the audience various moments through out the different topics of conversations the couple carry, all throughout linking the moral to this story: The need to impress others. Furthermore the structure in this play is apparently different from other more classical plays. But if you think about it, in order to generate such comedy, it is best to present it in a sort of clumsy manner as Ives did. Within his structure there is very little exposition, as you quickly grasp that the story is about a couple meeting each other for the first time who appear to focus themselves in some sort of romantic interest. Nonetheless, you notice the bell which you quickly become familiar with throughout the play as it is used whenever either one of the characters says or does something which is not approved by the other, giving them another chance at “getting it right.” The bells acts almost as if it resets the scene in order to give the characters another chance, slightly molding each character as each bell