SAVING BRITNEY, AT THE TOWN AND GOWN
Am I too old to become a first-time Britney Spears fan? Our hero in ‘Saving Britney’ was only eight when she first heard the pop princess’ first album ‘Baby, one more time’. For that baby, it was many many more times and a moment of true awakening. Our character ‘Jean’ charts her life from that first hearing of what would become a Britney obsession to a dramatic catharsis aged 30. Jean, a bouncy Gloucestershire lass intertwines her troubled life with that of her superhero. There are many parallels we are told; Jean has counted them, 172! She takes us through her childhood in the nineties –parents in a troubled marriage, a cold philandering dad, a warm mum who has cancer, an oft unhappy child with ADHD and OCD (she tells us how her various diagnoses look like a Scrabble board). Through all this is a mighty saving grace: Britney. Our Jean first hears that first album and lo, a tsunami of obsessive love for the US star. The words speak to her, as if Spears is talking direct from LA to Jean’s humble house in Cirencester.
Shereen Roushbaiani gives a powerfully magnetic performance as the Britneyed girl. She engages her audience as if we are her best friend. It is an intimate, funny, sad kaleidoscope of a young woman’s life or rather two lives. In the telling, Roushbaiani switches seamlessly from Jean’s troubles with dad, bullies at school, sexual awakening to brittle Fox News style TV reporter telling us the latest triumphs or tragedies in the life of Britney Spears. The script by David Shopland fizzes with energy, high comedy and genuine pathos. In an hour or so, we really do get to care both about Britney and Jean (who of course, is in the vanguard of the ‘Save Britney’ campaign). There is a wonderful soundscape of voice-over reportage and tantalising snippets of Britney’s hits played against a dazzling display of disco lighting. Roushbaiani takes us on a rocky journey of self discovery and there is a deeply moving conclusion (which I shall not give away). Pure theatre.
Though, yes, it may be too late to become a fan of the Queen of Electro Pop, I am certainly able to announce that I am a huge fan of ‘Saving Britney’.
T
