La MaMa in Association With Split Britches Presents The New York Premiere of LAST GASP, A Recalibration

La MaMa in association with Split Britches presents the New York premiere of Last Gasp, a Recalibration from October 14 - 30, 2022 at the Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa, 66 E. 4th Street, NYC. Tickets are $30 for adults, $25 for students and seniors, and the first ten tickets for every performance are $10. There will also be a special event featuring cocktails and an intimate discussion moderated by theatre scholar Benjamin Gillespie (Baruch College, CUNY) on October 18 at 6pm. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit lamama.org/shows/last-gasp-recalibration-2022 or call 646-430-5374.

In Last Gasp, A Recalibration, Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver recalibrate demise: the demise of their aging bodies, our civil conversations, and a sustainable planet. Landing somewhere between the realms of the live and the virtual, present and absent, between staying home and venturing out, the piece combines spoken word, movement and Zoom technology to respond to the world we now find ourselves in.

In early 2020, these two icons of lesbian-feminist theatre set out to present Last Gasp, a live performance questioning demise: the demise of aging bodies, civil conversations, and a sustainable planet. The pandemic arrived and knocked the breath out of us, as did a period of civil unrest that marched under the banner of 'I can't breathe.' The ironies were not lost as the duo locked down, stayed in and continued their investigations resulting in a Zoom recording, Last Gasp WFH.

Now almost two years later, Last Gasp: A Recalibration gathers us in the same room but not as the same people. Reworking Last Gasp WFH for the physical stage, Shaw and Weaver unpick what it means to be in a theatre, and what it means to perform. With episodes entitled 'The Trump in Me' and 'How to Set a Table in an Emergency', the legendary performance duo brings us together to recalibrate - we are not coming to an end but finding strategies for moving on.

...The fleet, surprisingly entertaining movie is alternately playful, surreal, pointed and poignant, and its nonlinear scenes incorporate many of Split Britches' calling cards: autobiography, sly humor, pop-culture references (Bill Withers to Beyoncé) and questioning of gender. - Elisabeth Vincentelli, The New York Times

Last Call: Cocktails and Conversation with Split Britches

Introduced and moderated by Benjamin Gillespie

Tuesday, October 18, 2022 | 6-9pm

Join Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver and their collaborators for cocktails and an intimate discussion about the duo's latest performance, Last Gasp: A Recalibration. The evening will include a presentation from the current book project anthologizing more than a decade of work by Split Britches.

Last Gasp: A Recalibration was created in collaboration with Lois Weaver, Peggy Shaw, Nao Nagai, Vivian Stoll and Morgan Thorson.

Written and Performed by Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver of Split Britches

Directed by Lois Weaver

Video Design and Editing by Nao Nagai

Sound by Vivian Stoll

Choreography by Morgan Thorson

Costumes by Susan Young

Design Consultation by Matt Delbridge