Last Gasp: A Recalibration

“How to survive a loss. First you recalibrate…”

In early 2020, Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver, 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.