Em Tambree
Britney Spears has millions of superfans but Jean believes their connection is cosmic. They almost share a name, a birthday and, seemingly, a timeline. Every Britney era arrives precisely when Jean needs it.
Written by David Shopland and performed by Shereen Roushbaiani, Saving Britney transforms one girl’s parasocial devotion into a nostalgic and thoughtful exploration of trauma and neurodivergence.
Before Jean has the language to understand her mental health, sexuality, neurodivergence or grief, she has Britney Spears. Britney’s discography becomes a sensory sanctuary, while trivia transforms chaos into something Jean can catalogue. The writing perceptively filters childhood trauma through the lens of a special interest.
Jean cannot yet articulate what is happening between her and her parents, why therapy frightens her or why she experiences the world as she does, but the audience is trusted to piece it together as her life unfolds alongside Britney’s well-documented public downfall.
Rather than announcing Jean’s possible AuDHD from the outset, or reducing her behaviour to a diagnosis, Saving Britney gives us the tools to recognise and empathise with her long before she finds that language herself. I saw much of my own neurodivergent childhood refreshingly reflected in the piece. It is wonderful to see Jean’s way of thinking treated as lived-in and inseparable from how she moves through the world.
I felt similarly about the production’s approach to Jean’s sexuality. In one of its most touching sequences, Jean’s first crush comes over to watch MTV, and the girls share their first kiss shortly before Britney and Madonna’s infamous televised one. Saving Britney understands the complicated power of that image. However calculated, sensationalised, or imperfect the representation may have been, two young queer girls still saw a possibility of themselves existing on one of the world’s biggest stages for the very first time.
Roushbaiani has undeniably impressive control over her body, communicating a plethora of emotions with the flick of a hand or the raise of an eyebrow. The show’s humour works best when it leans into her gift for physical comedy. Her commanding audience interactions, ceremonial presentation of sacred Britney memorabilia, and rapid-fire hyperfixation rants are especially charming, repeatedly catching me off guard with just how funny she is.
Her heightened portrayal of Jean’s childhood obsession shines in moments of unrestrained enthusiasm but occasionally keeps us at an emotional distance. Children may be physically uninhibited, yet they are also extraordinarily present and sincere. A more grounded characterisation in these moments could invite us further into Jean’s inner world. This would allow both her vulnerability and the sophistication of Shopland and Roushbaiani’s collaboration to emerge more clearly.
Perhaps it is that sophistication throughout that ultimately left me hopeful for better representation and a stronger resolution by the play’s final arc. Originally created during the pandemic and first staged in 2021, Saving Britney now returns in a cultural landscape where conversations around neurodivergence have evolved considerably post-Covid. Its depiction of Jean pursuing an autism diagnosis feels closely tied to the period in which it was written, when many people began recognising their own neurodivergence during periods of isolation.
The difficulty is not that Jean feels broken. Many late-diagnosed neurodivergent people have felt exactly that. The difficulty is that the production leaves this feeling largely unresolved.
Placing Jean’s diagnosis alongside Britney’s complex and highly publicised mental-health crisis also risks drawing a comparison that requires greater care and interrogation. After spending so much of the play allowing Jean’s neurodivergence to feel ordinary, embodied and organic, its final framing of her diagnositic tragedy feels unexpectedly out of character with the care proceeding its conclusion.
The production’s most compelling story is already shimmering beneath its surface: a neurodivergent girl using a special interest to organise a frightening and confusing world. More time with adult Jean could illuminate how Britney gave her order, ritual and language long before diagnosis did; and allow Jean to understand that she was never broken but only waiting for the right framework through which to read herself.
Funny, perceptive and packed with pop nostalgia, Saving Britney finds an affecting coming of age story beneath its mountain of memorabilia. With one more evolution, this already thoughtful work could become even Stronger than yesterday.
Recommended Drink: A Pepsi, in honour of Britney’s iconic collaboration with the brand.
You can catch Saving Britney at Underbelly George Square between August 25-30 at 18:15 (60 mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Box Office.
Lola Rose Wood
Issy Cory
