Retro(per)spective
Retro(per)spective is a Split Britches greatest hits album for those who remember the 1980s and a Split Britches primer for those who may have missed it! Retro(per)spective is a medley of 40 years of Split Britches’ performances that made the politics of gender and sexuality and the humor of human relations accessible to all ages and persuasions.
Retro(per)spective provides a humorous slant on love, life, work and play and features excerpts from old favorites such as Upwardly Mobile Home, Belle Reprieve, Lesbians Who Kill, Dress Suits to Hire, and Anniversary Waltz as well as material from newer shows, Lost Lounge and Miss America. The performance uses excerpts from Split Britches performance history to dovetail and challenge current public discourses.
Lois Weaver, Peggy Shaw
Hemispheric Institute, Centro Cultural Recoleta
Split Britches
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Full footage of the performance can be found here.
Retro(per)spective has toured to venues including Michigan Women’s Music Festival, Grand Rapids, Michigan (August 2009); Theatre Department, SUNY Oswego, Oswego, NY (September 2009); Cousins Theatre, University of Richmond, Richmond Virginia (November 2009); UCLA (October 2010), Augsburg College, (November 2010), Swarthmore College, (October 2012) and as the keynote performance for American Association of Theatre Researcher, Nashville (November 2012). Batterseae Arts Centre, London (May 2018), Warehouse9, Copenhagen (June 2018).
"As difficult as it must be to look back and see you have travelled most of your road, these two find humour, art and pathos in creating the next moment of their story together. In this way the work is deeper than a simple nostalgia or ‘medley of extracts’. It’s a stratification of various stages of their creative evolution."
- DRAFF Magazine - full review here.
Chemistry and comic timing honed over decades is evident – they work beautifully together, effortlessly riffing off one another, two halves of a seamless whole."
- Exeunt Magazine - full review here.
