Saving Britney at The Town and Gown Pub Theatre, Cambridge

Review by Angela Singer

This is a rollercoaster of a show. The warm and inviting newest pub in Cambridge, The Town and Gown in Market Passage, serves up something powerful after your cosy pre-theatre dinner.

In a one-woman show, Shereen Roushbaiani plays Jean who was born on the same day as Britney Spears but eight years later. Jean finds 172 “connections” or coincidences in their lives. Britney is a child when she becomes a singer, Jean’s childhood is laced with adoration of the star. She is excited the first time she hears: “The combination of bubble gum pop and rock guitar.”

Britney is born in Mississippi in December 1982. Jean is born in Cirencester in December 1990.  Jean sees parallels in their lives. For a start, Jean is Britney’s middle name. At age 11, Britney signs an eight-million dollar deal with Pepsi and at age 11, Jean is diagnosed with ADHD – and guess what, says Jean, Pepsi exacerbates ADHD!

Jean also reads signs of Britney’s distress in the lyrics of her songs. When the free Britney campaign celebrates the star’s release, finally at 38, from the conservatorship which gave her father control pretty much over when she breathed in and out, Jean says she has been seeing a cry for help in those songs for the past 20 years.

Roushbaiani, who co-wrote the one-hour play with director David Shopland, gives an accomplished performance which veers from the comic to the tragic, from the child to the teenager and finally the adult who realises that as a fan, she has unwittingly been part of the problem.

The play is an homage to the 1990s. The set has a rail of Britney’s costumes, including the school unform-style white shirt, grey cardigan and striped tie. We see Jean’s collection of 90s sweets and drinks, her fluffy pen – a video from Blockbusters.

Every so often, a blast of a Britney song punctuates the scenes. While as Jean says: “Britney was so busy winning singing competitions she forgot to have a childhood,” Jean was persuading her dad to take her to the record shop, Our Price to buy the star’s latest CD.

The years are marked: “In 1997, someone called Blair was going to make things better but turned out to be Diet Thatcher.”

In the year 1999, she recalls fears of the millennium bug.

Britney has her issues. So does Jean. Her parents split up. “The house is filled with dad and his sadness and his angry silences.”

Somehow though things have a way of resolving themselves. Eventually, Britney is released from her bondage and Jean releases herself from enslavement to an idea.

The play, presented by the company Fake Escape, is touring, reaching South Mill Arts, Bishop Stortford on February 24, The Fisher Theatre, Suffolk on March 2, The Old Electric, Blackpool on March 5, The Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester, March 8-10, The Nutshell Winchester on March 12 and Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, March 25-26.