Simply Fancy

It was to be a simple evening. My plans to see Much Ado About Nothing fell through and I intended to spend a quite night at home... Approximately 11am Mr J. called me and said he had a spare ticket to a play at the Belvoir Theater. How could I say no?

He picked me up from home (after I had a couple of drinks with work) slightly tanked from the 3 glasses of wine we went straight into the theater. I did a google search to see what was on it was either an Aboriginal production or a play about people picking fruit. Both opening night.

We all know how much I enjoy live performances, I was thrilled at either.

When we arrived I was greeted warmly by Mr J's sister and her boyfriend. We were then advised there would be drinks and nibblies throughout the night - bonus!

We had a nice little spot leaning up against the table when I did a double take of a guy walking down the stairs, I recognised him. Obviously everybody else did, before I knew it there were cameras flashing and people gravitating toward him for a happy snap. I tapped Mr J on the shoulder and whispered 'who's that?' Peter Garret. Hmmmm... I don't get star struck, well so I thought. Cate Blanchett, how unbelievably beautiful she is (shorter than what I thought she would be). She's hugely pregnant but still walked with such grace. She brushed past me (literally, almost bumped into me). We also heard Christina Anu was there - we didn't see her though...

The 'stars' were there for Ngapartji Ngapartji and we were there for Simply Fancy. My review will be bias as after the show we were hanging out with Claudia and Charlie who are just awesome drinking and chasing waiters for food. SMH review:

It could be the first line of a bad joke: "A big-time theatre director is sitting at the bar when three amateur actors/directors/writers walk in …" It was, however, no joke for Nick Coyle, Claudia O'Doherty and Charlie Garber, of the start-up theatre crew Pig Island, when the Belvoir St Theatre head honcho Neil Armfield turned around from the bar and asked if they would like to restage their latest show, Simply Fancy, downstairs at Belvoir.

Coyle, O'Doherty and Garber were performing their self-penned, -directed and -acted play at the Old Fitz Theatre in Woolloomooloo in November last year when Armfield was a surprise guest for closing night. "Afterwards, we went into the bar and he was having a drink," O'Doherty told SiT. "We had met him before so we went up to talk to him … he seemed to like the show and he asked if we would bring the show to Belvoir."

Last year the group won Best Independent Production at the 2007 Melbourne International Comedy Festival with The Glass Boat; this year they hope to do the same with Simply Fancy, a surreal comedy about a family trying to find fruit for a birthday. After meeting at Sydney University in 2003, the group wrote and produced their first play, The October Sapphire, in 2004, performed it at small theatres around Sydney in 2005 and took it to the New York Fringe Festival in 2006.

"We wanted to act and produce original plays," Garber said of forming the group, adding that being self-directed allowed them to make changes to the script and performance, if they all agreed. "We have disagreements," O'Doherty said, "but they never come to blows." After opening on Friday in the downstairs theatre, Simply Fancy plays at Belvoir until February 3.

It was such an enjoyable night. I'm so wrapped Mr J asked me along.