Split Britches

Founding and Members

Split Britches was founded by Peggy Shaw, Lois Weaver, and Deb Margolin in New York City in 1980. Shaw and Weaver met in Europe when Weaver was touring with an earlier troupe, Spiderwoman Theater.

Peggy Shaw (b. 1946) is a theatre artist whose work combines butch identity and dry humor. She has most recently produced a solo show, RUFF (2012), on having a stroke. at Dixon Place, a dedicated LBGTQ performance venue in NYC. Directed by Weaver, RUFF is touring in the UK, USA and to Canada (2013–14). Shaw is the group's primary designer and technician.

Lois Weaver is a performing artist whose work is recognized as seminal in creating a template for lesbian performance methodologies. She is touring a show called What Tammy Found Out (2014), and is Professor of Contemporary Performance in the Department of Drama, Queen Mary, University of London. Weaver most often acts as the director for Split Britches.

Deb Margolin, no longer a member of Split Britches, is a renowned performance artist, currently a professor at Yale University. She was primarily the wordsmith of the troupe, known for transforming visions into the final script.

Split Britches, The True Story, is the performance from which the performance troupe got their name. This play is the original collaboration between Peggy Shaw, Lois Weaver, and Deb Margolin. The script was first published in Women & Performance, and has been said to have found inspiration within women’s performance traditions. The name of the company has been said to mimic the “split pants” of poverty and comedy.

Methodology and Concepts

Split Britches has worked with concepts of lesbian, queer, dyke, butch and femme identities and cultures in a context of American feminism and live arts movements which emerged through the 1970s. In Split Britches: Lesbian Practice/Feminist Performance, critic and theorist Sue-Ellen Case aptly sums up the importance of the trio in the development of contemporary lesbian performance: "the troupe created a unique 'postmodern' style that served to embed feminist and lesbian issues of the times, economic debates, national agendas, personal relationships, and sex-radical role playing in spectacular and humorous deconstructions of canonical texts, vaudeville shtick, cabaret forms, lip-synching satire, lyrical love scenes, and dark, frightening explorations of class and gender violence." The troupe uses these performances to create a safe space in which non-normative sexualities and genders can occur in peace, and it is praised for having maintained a theatre space for women's artistic endeavors.

Geraldine Harris has placed the work of the troupe in a "postmodern Brechtian tradition", and in an article on this troupe, describes the focus in their work on borders, as they often take on ideas of duality. With concepts of butch/femme highlighted in their work, as are concepts around class, classism, and oppression. Harris also explains that the troupe opposes the gender binary as a mode of political performance. Split Britches also examines the fetishization, objectification, and narcissistic misidentifications that cannot be separated from love, passion, and desire. The shows are often praised for the deconstructive and transformative lenses through which they are written.

Split Britches' work comes from a tradition of performance art that is documented academically by the field of performance studies. Their work is cited as indicative of lesbian art which brings up issues of subjectivity. It has been central to the development of feminist performance theory, for example in the pioneering work of Jill Dolan on the feminist spectator, Sue-Ellen Case on butch/femme aesthetics and Alisa Solomon and Kate Davy on feminist performance contexts.

In a dissertation by Deanna Beth Shoemaker, Split Britches was said to use games, fantasies, songs, dance numbers, and monologues to addresses issues including female desire, power, and lesbian identity. The characters in the performances play on gender and sexuality binaries, and explore issues of lesbian femme identity within and without the butch/femme dynamic.

Controversies

At the time Split Britches was formed, cross-dressing and drag were popular, so this has become a central part of some of their performances. Some of the performances by the troupe have come under fire for the portrayal of certain characters. Specifically, the coproduction of Belle Reprieve by Split Britches and Bloolips, a group of gay drag performers. In this performance, gender norms are erased, and the binary is played upon. This performance has been critiqued due to the female actors dressing as men. Because most instances of cross-dressing are males dressing up ultra-feminine, this performance was unusual. It was said that this type of performance further holds men to be superior to women. Additionally, it has been criticized that cross-dressing reinforces the gender binary, which so many feminists have worked to eliminate.

Shows

RUFF, 2012–present

What Tammy Found Out, 2012–present

Lost Lounge, 2009–present

Miss America, 2008–present

Retro-Perspective, 2007–present

MUST, 2007–present

Diary of a Domestic Terrorist, 2005

What Tammy Needs to Know, 2004

To My Chagrin, 2003

Miss Risque, 2001

It's a Small House and We Lived in It Always, 1999

Little Women, 1998

Little Women, The Tragedy, 1998

Salad of the Bad Cafe, 1998

Valley of the Dolls, 1997

Faith and Dancing, 1996

Menopausal Gentleman, 1996

Lust and Comfort, 1994

You're Just Like My Father, 1993

Lesbians Who Kill, 1992

Anniversary Waltz, 1990

Belle Reprieve, 1990

Little Women, The Tragedy, 1988

Dress Suits for Hire, 1987

Patience and Sarah, 1987

Upwardly Mobile Home, 1984

Beauty and the Beast, 1982

Split Britches, The True Story, 1980