ABSTRACT
Split Britches is a New York City-based lesbian-feminist performance troupe that was founded in 1980 by Peggy Shaw, Lois Weaver, and Deb Margolin. The troupe remains active today after four decades of trailblazing queer theatre. The company is known for creating original works that deconstruct canonical “straight” texts, foregrounding the presence of queer desire through overt lesbian sexuality and butch/femme role play, thus undermining heterosexual imperatives. Their works include Beauty and the Beast (1982), Dress Suits to Hire (with Holly Hughes) (1987), Belle Reprieve (1991), Lesbians Who Kill (1992), Unexploded Ordnances (UXO) (2018), Last Gasp (2020), as well as solo works such as Weaver’s Faith and Dancing (1996) and Shaw’s Menopausal Gentleman (1996) and Ruff (2012/2013).
