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| Robyn Archer in Picaresque. Photo: Tony Lewis |
Picaresque. Devised and Performed
by Robyn Archer with George Butrumlis. Ann Wiberg. Designer Geoff Cobham.
Exhibition designer. Wendy Todd. The Banquet Room. Adelaide Festival Centre.
Adelaide Festival 2019. March 8 – 17.
The secret is out. Robyn Archer is
Australia’s favourite Singing Jilldaw. Jackdaws are renowned hoarders and a
walk through the entrance to the Banquet Room of the Festival Centre to see
Archer’s Picaresque is proof enough
of Archer’s “carbon footprint of shame” as she calls it. Along the walls hang a
plethora of travel memorabilia from luggage tabs and labels to Do Not Disturb
signs, writing paraphernalia and airline blindfolds. It is proof positive of
Archer’s international reputation as an artist of extraordinary talent.
Inside the Banquet Room an even
more amazing sight greets us. Inspired by the Sam Smith marquettes that she
encountered during her decade in London, Archer has been an avid collector of flat
pack marquettes of the many places she has travelled to during her stellar
career.-from Sydney to London, from Paris to Kyoto, from Lucknow to San
Francisco. She has never visited Prague, so the Basilica in Budapest is close
enough. Somewhere along the trail, she has lost the Taj Mahal and the Parthenon
but they are hardly missed amongst the stunning array of cardboard models,
surrounded by small lights and conjuring memories of places visited and highlights
of her remarkable cabaret career.
Archer enters to “I Love Paris”
on guitar, followed by accompanist George Butrumlis on accordion.
Troubador-like they move to the small stage amongst the miniature buildings.
What follows is an extraordinary repertoire of songs that Archer has
interpreted in her own inimitable style over four decades. Interspersed with
anecdotes of her life and travels, Archer leads us from the Great American Song
Book, to the songs of Eisler and Brecht to the primary school anthem, sung in
the quad to her beloved Paris and the seductive La Vie en Rose. From Dean
Martin to Bertolt Brecht, from Burlington Bertie from Bow to Jacques Brel’s Port
of Amsterdam, from Mozart to Haydn and Yodeller Mary Schneider to Johann
Sebastian Bach Archer entrances and enchants with a repertoire of extraordinary
breadth. Her picaresque selection of songs like the displays of memorabilia and
marquettes are the nostalgic highlights of life’s journey. Her aria may not
have the rich timbre of the past, and some notes may be more challenging to
reach, but there is no doubting her control of the blues and her passion for
the political songs of Brecht.
I sit enthralled by Archer’s
relaxed and friendly charm. Songs of my generation conjure affection for the
past, its journeys and its music. Audiences who have followed Archer’s
illustrious career or have lived Life’s journey through her time will revel in
the performance with virtuoso accompanist, Butrumlis on accordion and bouzouki.
Travellers will delight in the cardboard world laid out before them. But most
of all, they will be willing travelers through Archer’s own songbook of
memories. Picaresque is snatches of
songs from Archer’s vast repertoire. This is armchair entertainment. No glitz
or glamour sparkles with false pretension. Her songbook is the chapter and
verse of love. Her voice glides along a stream of memory with humour, affection
and passion.
Picaresque is a journey of delightful stopovers in the company of a
travel guide extraordinaire.
