Robyn Archer’s reputation precedes her. It is an imposing and towering one, built on a 50-year career as an Australian creative force with a unique artistic voice. As a writer, performer, artistic director and arts advocate she has channelled and challenged our identity, and deserves to be considered a national living treasure. Archer is also acclaimed as one of our greatest cultural exports, her one-woman show A Star is Torn running for a year in London’s West End.

Robyn Archer: An Australian Songbook, Queensland Theatre, 2022. Photo © Brett Boardman

Yet, for all she has done across those many decades, I (and I suspect many other Queensland-based audience members), had never seen her perform live.

So, Queensland Theatre’s inspired commissioning of Archer to assemble her take on an Australian songbook was a golden opportunity I didn’t want to miss. And she and her three musical collaborators confirmed that this is what live theatre is about; what we all hope for when we take our seat anticipatorily in the darkened auditorium. It’s to be immersed, to be transported, and taken on a journey where we forget the outside world for the...