Such a voice!
Inducted into the South Australian Music Hall of Fame just two months ago, Robyn Archer’s talent makes it easy to see why. An out lesbian in a country which keeps such things mostly under wraps, she has still been invited to sing with the Sidney Philharmonic, the Nexus Opera, and in London on the West End at the Wyndham Theatre.
I had no idea who she was and sat with her at meal time, exchanging tales of the fight for marriage equality in our respective countries and worrying over how the Brexit vote might influence upcoming Australian and American elections.
Imagine my surprise when our highly promoted and lauded evening’s entertainment turned out to be my dinner buddy. She is definitely not a self promoting braggart of a theatre person, which just makes me like her even more.
Robin sang us a Cabaret program of 23 songs, including rare gems from Tuchoslky, Hollaender, Wedekind, Bizet, Kreisler, Ringelnatz, Weill, Eisler and Brecht, and even with two encores, neither her voice nor her energy seemed to wear out.
I was impressed by her abilities, a genuine Cabaret artist, not only capable of singing complex arrangements requiring a supple voice and range versatility, but able to act out and embody the characters within the stories she was telling.
Robyn was accompanied on piano by Michael Morley,
the Emeritus Director of Drama at Flinders University, who has written widely on European and German theatre, has been published by Methuen Press, and been musical director for a number of professional productions in South Australia, San Francisco, and overseas. Michael was awarded the South Australian Premier’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts in 2012.
He was a brilliant pianist, a funny sidekick who harmonized on a few musical punchlines, and really, just a very nice man. He and I walked over to the hall together before the show and on the way there, he related how much he was looking forward to hopefully getting some sleep tonight. Since this has been my quest since I’ve arrived, we commiserated, shared an ironical laugh and then wished each other sweet dreams 🙂 .
But then, the show they delivered was such high energy, entertaining, thought provoking, hilarious, and occasionally downright poignant that I forgot my fatigue and it certainly seemed that for the duration, so did he.
It was a lovely way to end a very long, cerebral overload kind of day.