Language
“Sure Thing” calls attention to what language can do. In the generous world of the play, Bill and Betty have the opportunity to begin their relationship again and again. Each time, what they say, and how they say it, determines their future. Sometimes, saying the right thing is simply uttering a word like "Harvard"—a status symbol. At other times, success lies in finding the correct rhythm of conversation. For example, when Bill and Betty discuss Faulkner, Bill attempts to impress Betty with a long monologue that fails; then the same words divided into a dialogue between them succeeds. Several times in the play Betty calls attention to Bill’s lines as pick-up lines—that is, clichés he’s using to try to bed her. At one point Bill adjusts the words of a phrase (“A man is what he is”) repeatedly to make them less sexist. As the language shifts, so do their fortunes. Bill and Betty become most successful in creating a happy ending when their language conforms to the demands of the romantic comedy genre, including both conventions of class and identity. Their words converge when they ask each other to the movies at the same moment. Then they begin to agree entirely on naming their tastes and visions for the future.
Identity
The central paradox of “Sure Thing” lies in identity: Bill and Betty each hold self-conflicting desires, tastes, histories, personality traits, levels of generosity and self-absorption, intellectual depth, emotional stability, life experience, curiosity, and relationship statuses. In short, they are multiple characters. There is more than one Bill, and more than one Betty. But who they are in a given scene is based upon who the last iteration of Bill or Betty was. So their identities are adjusting, reaching towards success in mating. The audience sees a Darwinian process of evolution—not over generations, but within two individuals, given infinite chances to recreate their identities. Identity in this play is a performance, both in the moment of language, and in a history of actions; it’s made up of the many potential and actual choices made by each person. It is also a set of labels or cliches, status symbols that allow a potential mate to judge. Bill overall has a more changeable identity in the play compared with Betty, reflecting a traditional idea of women being the ultimate choosers in mate selection.
Iterability
“Sure Thing” was first produced in 1988. That same year Jacques Derrida published the book "Signature Event Context” that laid out his notion of iterability, which has become influential in critical theory. It argues that language communicates by reperforming a performative utterance: citing an allusion, reusing a phrase, reiterating what has been said before. Whether or not Ives was aware of Derrida’s book, his play notices the iterability of language and makes it a theme. Bill and Betty repeat the same phrases again and again, with variations. The variations make a difference in the force of the utterance—that is, how the words affect the other person. In 1990, Judith Butler took up Derrida’s notion of iterability and applied it to gender theory, arguing that gender is a performance, and a citation of all previous performances of gender, as opposed to being something innate to an individual's biology. “Sure Thing” can also be read as exploring the iterability of gender, as Bill and Betty iterate many roles, to the point that the cliches of gender performance become obvious.
Timing
Bill explicitly states a major theme of the play: “You never know. You might not have liked him before...You might not have been ready for him. You have to hit these things at the right moment or it’s no good...It’s all in the timing.” When Bill points out that Betty might not have liked him before, he is referring to Faulkner, and also to their new relationship. The audience knows the wisdom and humor of his statement because it has just witnessed her rejection of Bill in the previous scene. Timing refers to several issues explored in the play: meeting someone at the right time in your life, when you’re emotionally ready; the coincidence of being in the right place at the right time; and the comic timing of conversation.
Class
Bill and Betty’s conversation about “The Sound and the Fury” introduces the theme of class to the play. Being educated allows Bill to move forward in his relationship with Betty. Book learning thus has an instrumental social function. There is a wrong answer (Hemingway) and a right answer (Faulkner). The theme of class is continued in their conversation about origin, as the upper-middle-class Westchester County succeeds in impressing Betty, while the post-industrial blue collar towns of Pittsburgh and Cleveland fail. In the end, in order to reach the climax of complete agreement and then the denouement of leaving the cafe together, Bill and Betty must exhibit the tastes and desires of the elite: marriage with multiple children, all of whom go to Ivy league schools (Harvard, Vassar, and Brown).
Labels
During the most ironic exchange in the play, Bill and Betty agree earnestly that “labels are not important” while demonstrating the opposite. Bill cannot win Betty’s favor with symbols of low economic status or physical or social aberration. “Labels” are another term for symbols, and the play makes these a theme by repeating variations on them until the most socially accepted one is chosen, allowing the play to move forward to the next topic. Examples of labels include origin, alma mater, GPA, and tastes in literature and film.
Genre
“Sure Thing” has a classic romantic comedy structure: Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy gets girl back again. One of the unique aspects of the play is that it makes that genre a theme. It repeats again and again until the genre is noticeable. In each scene where the boy and the girl fail to progress to the conventional ending, happily ever after, a bell rings, and the play gives them an opportunity to begin again, and get it right. Along the way, they smooth off their rough edges, their oddball traits and insecurities and incompatibilities, as if getting rewrites, until at last they invite each other to the movies at the same moment, which begins a cascade of agreement ending with a pledge to marry and have children. While this is the expected finale to a romantic comedy, it takes place at a breakneck pace, calling attention to itself through this absurdity of timing. The play drives home the theme of genre by making their agreed upon filmmaker of choice Woody Allen, known for cerebral romantic comedies. They become hyperbolically rapturous about their love of his films. They finally fit together when their characters like the same genre—and,it is implied, actually come to occupy the same genre.
