Split Britches – Last Gasp: A Recalibration

Equipped with a bulletproof vest, some know-how and a touch of irony, Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver use spoken word and movement as a call and response to urgent global predicaments. Two icons of lesbian-feminist theatre: solo yet somehow interdependent. Speaking from a microphone of her own narcissistic tendencies, fragile identities and privilege, Shaw’s poetic musings are interspersed with Weaver’s micro dance essays in which she wryly upends ‘how to’ mania. With one reflecting the other, more than a hint of Narcissus and Echo begins to emerge onstage. Last Gasp brings prickly conversations literally to the table in episodes entitled ‘The Trump in Me’, ‘How to Survive a Loss’ and ‘How to Have the Last Word’. With cultural references ranging from surrealist painter Dorothea Tanning to singer Johnnie Ray, the legendary performance duo eases a little tension while hitting upon survival strategies for a world collapsing around them.