Robyn Archer and The Pack of Women

A Star is Born 

Before the stage lights or the television cameras, Robyn Archer’s first performances were for the regulars at her great-grandparents' Adelaide pub, the British Hotel. Four-year-old Robyn would sing and dance in the ladies’ lounge at closing time, providing an early glimpse of her love for the limelight. After her father – also a singer and stand-up comedian – gifted her a ukelele at age eight, Robyn began learning popular folk and country songs and appearing in variety shows that he hosted. By her mid-teens she was a familiar face on The Country and Western Hour, and a 15-year-old Archer (appearing pre-pseudonym as ‘Robyn Smith’) was a Bandstand Starflight finalist in 1964. The two earliest clips of Archer in the NFSA collection feature her appearances on both these programs, providing a portrait of a young and fearless performer.

Listen to a teenage Robyn Archer singing ‘Rocky Road’ by Peter, Paul and Mary on The Country and Western Hour in 1964

Watch Archer perform the Bob Dylan-penned ‘It Ain’t Me, Babe’ on Bandstand in 1965, following her run as a Bandstand Starflight finalist:

Despite being a relatively inexperienced performer, the power of Archer’s voice in these early clips is unmistakable. Her simple acoustic guitar accompaniment allows the strength of the lyrics and the potency of her vocal performance to shine. While the musical style is certainly not one that Archer would become most known for, she has in later interviews credited these folk and country songs for more than just launching her career: their thematic content served as an early inspiration for her developing liberatory politics.

A Star Is Torn

After a short stint as a singer at the Trocadero Niteclub – where she borrowed the last name ‘Archer’ from the club’s secretary (spoiler: it stuck) – Robyn Archer was cast in back-to-back productions of The Seven Deadly Sins and The Threepenny Opera for the Adelaide Festival Centre. The Brecht/Weill repertoire opened the door to a theatrical world where politics, music and performance collided, and Archer found her long-term artistic home in the traditions of European cabaret.

This clip from The Mike Walsh Show in 1978 shows Archer channellinga traditional cabaret energy, performing Marlene Dietrich’s ‘The Boys in the Back Room’ with aplomb. Her comfort with the form and her enthusiasm for cabaret’s ability to blend the aesthetic with the political is clearly evident:

Kold Komfort Kaffe received positive reviews, but Archer's real breakthrough came the following year with A Star is Torn, a tour-de-force tribute to legendary female singers with tragic biographies. From Bessie Smith to Judy Garland and Janis Joplin, Archer told stories of glittering fame and the personal toll exacted on women in the spotlight, switching between characters and vocal styles. Another appearance on The Mike Walsh Show two years later shows a more confident and developed entertainer who had landed on a compelling theme.

The Ladies’ Choice: An Australian First

Take Your Partners for the Ladies' Choice album cover, 1977. NFSA title: 139169

The same feminist spirit rings out on Archer’s groundbreaking 1977 debut album, Take Your Partners for the Ladies’ Choice. Produced in collaboration with Diana Manson, it was the first Australian album produced entirely by women.

The standout track ‘Menstruation Blues’ sets a bold and irreverent tone, using a familiar blues form to describe a familiar – but often underreported – feeling. In this audio excerpt, Archer sings with frankness, humour and defiance. The song struck a chord with its bleeding audience, who were energised to hear the frank and funny take on subject matter which was, at the time, rarely spoken of in public. The song became a staple of Archer's live performances for decades, and was added to the NFSA’s Sounds of Australia register in 2023 to reflect its significance and cultural impact.

Listen to an excerpt from 'Menstruation Blues’ by Robyn Archer 

But Take Your Partners for the Ladies’ Choice offers more than a single provocation (or a provocative single). Some tracks are funny, others sombre – but each challenges gender expectations, reflecting the spirit of the 1970s women’s liberation movement. The record foregrounded female agency in both performance and production.

A Pack of Women: Cabaret as Critique

Archer continued to build on her themes for The Pack of Women, an ambitious show that fused music, satire and feminist critique. The stage show toured nationally in 1983 to sold-out crowds, before making the leap to screen in a bold 1986 television special. Co-written by Robyn Archer and helmed by director Ted Robinson, the cabaret-infused spectacle brought together a powerhouse all-female ensemble, including Starstruck’s Jo Kennedy, dancer and choreographer Meryl Tankard, comedian Tracey Harvey and singer Judi Connelli. The Pack of Women took sharp aim at motherhood, misogyny and the media, dismantling gender stereotypes with unapologetic wit. The show didn’t just push boundaries, it gleefully trampled them, making history with another first – the first Australian TV program to air the word ‘cunt’ in primetime.

This clip from Sunday in 1983 features the cast from the stage production of The Pack of Women –Jane Clifton, Judi Connelli and Michele Fawdon– singing ‘Waiting Too Long’ to promote the show’s first highly successful Australian tour. Seeing the original cast perform the song gives a sense of what the stage show may have been like before it was adapted for TV in 1986 with Connelli as the only returning cast member. Whether presented on stage or on screen, Archer’s lyrics in ‘Waiting Too Long’ combine the biting edge of cabaret with the earworm melodies and emotional depth of her early roots in protest songs. Her lyrics are funny, biting and – given the ongoing gender pay gap – still pack a punch in 2025.

A Feminist Legacy

After The Pack of Women, Archer continued writing, recording and touring her songs, with records like Rough as Guts, Robyn Archer Sings Brecht, and the strikingly-titled Mrs Bottle's (Absolutely Blurtingly Beautiful World-Beating) Burp. She also continued devising and writing for the stage, with hit shows like Cafe Fledermaus, Le Chat Noir, Sappho Sings the Blues and Architektin.

Archer’s legacy as a performer has been matched by her contributions as a festival director and cultural leader supporting future generations of artists. From heading festivals in Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Tasmania, to curating arts programs across the country, she has worked tirelessly to amplify artistic voices – particularly those of women, underrepresented communities, and experimental or marginal artforms.

In this clip from Lowering the Tone, a documentary produced to celebrate Robyn Archer’s first 45 years of artistry, she reflects on the feminist themes that dominated the early part of her career. She emphasises her belief in passing the torch to future generations of female artists, while granting herself the creative freedom to explore other themes. It’s a complex and touching sentiment: seeing her both pleased at a job well done, and confident that feminism needs to be taken up by new hands to continue moving forwards. The interview is accompanied by an excerpt from The Pack of Women, in which Archer makes an appearance to play the famous ‘Menstruation Blues’. The glee in her performance is utterly infectious, and the filmmakers’ choice to pair it with the interview makes perfect sense: the song makes clear Archer’s role in inspiring a future generation of feminists.

Robyn Archer’s incredible career has spanned six decades, but her message remains urgent: the personal is political, and the best art – especially song – can raise a smile, a fist and a glass, all at once.

The NFSA screened the 1986 TV special The Pack of Women on 14 June 2025, followed by a live performance and panel discussion with Robyn Archer.

Main image: Photograph by Claudio Raschella