Sure Thing Summary

Betty sits in a cafe reading a book. Bill enters, asks to sit down in the chair across from her, and tries to start a conversation. As the play progresses, every time one of them makes a mistake in the conversation, a bell rings. Then they get to stop and begin again from where it went wrong. For example, Bill asks Betty “What’s the book?” She replies, The Sound and the Fury. Misidentifying the author, he says, “Oh. Hemingway.” The bell rings. They repeat the conversation until he correctly identifies the author, has read the book, and is able to have an intelligent and generous conversation with Betty. They perform several iterations of each topic, in which their identities continually shift to allow them to be the person who would say the "right" thing. There are many versions of Bill and Betty. After repeated failures to connect, their personalities and language finally intersect to the point that they ask each other to the movies at the same moment. Ultimately they fall in love, the bell ceases to ring, and they head off both to the movies and wedded bliss.