Not the Britney show I expected

I expected a big dance number and show, but was instead met with a single actor on a simple stage.

It's Britney, Bitch is about the life of pop artist Britney Spears, especially her relationship with her father. The role of Britney was played by Caroline Glomnes. The performance was created and directed by Lena Brasch and Sina Martens, while the performance was originally created for the Berliner Ensemble in Berlin. The play had its first premiere in 2022 and was a great success with 130 sold-out performances on the Berliner Ensemble's main stage. 

IT'S BRITNEY, BITCH! was a success because it tells the story of Britney Spears in a personal and different way. Instead of just focusing on her life as a pop star, the show also shows the pressures of being a young and famous woman who is constantly being watched and judged by others. Britney is not only judged for her music, but also for her appearance, her body and how she behaves. The show therefore shows how social media's portrayal of her can affect her life, and how it can be difficult to distinguish between Britney the person and Britney Spears the celebrity. 

The Norwegian translation is by Elisabeth Beanca Halvorsen, and the Norwegian version is performed on the main stage at Oslo Nye Teater. The set design is quite simple with a large box in the middle of the stage with silver curtains covering the inside of the box and the use of lights. One of the lights on the stage is a large spotlight with wheels that represents Britney's father. Throughout the play, Britney has a dialogue with the lamp where she speaks as both father and daughter. Other times, lights are used in connection with a kind of show where Britney dances and sings for the audience. 

The play started with Glomnes standing inside the box and dramatically opening the curtains. She talks about Britney's life and experiences. The way Britney was portrayed was a bit confusing to me. I was sometimes unsure whether Glomnes was supposed to be Britney the whole time and tell the story about herself in the third person, or whether she was supposed to be herself and tell about Britney, and then step into the role of Britney when she acted out different situations. The transitions between the narrator and Britney were not always clear to me, and it was therefore a bit difficult to follow the story and at the same time try to understand who was talking. I don't know if it was meant to be unclear who was talking, but if it wasn't then I don't think they did such a good job of showing the difference between Glomnes and Britney.

During the play, there was a lot of focus on the relationship with her father and how Britney lost control of her own life. Glomnes told about how Britney was placed under guardianship and how others around her gained great control over her finances, career and choices. It was also told about how she felt pressured to do concerts by her boss and that she was threatened by her own company with being sued if she did not do what she was asked.

The performance felt more like a talk show or a live documentary than a play. Glomnes spoke directly to the audience from the very beginning, telling stories about different parts of Britney Spears' life, and then moved on to acting out the events. When she was telling stories, she often looked directly at us in the audience and made eye contact with the audience, which made it quite personal. She also used humor and funny references in the play, which made many in the audience laugh, which really gave me the feeling that I was on a talk show. At the same time, it gave the feeling of a live documentary, because she told about different interviews, and what kinds of questions they asked, and then played audio recordings of them. In this way, I think it was different from regular performances.

Despite the talk show approach, it also had a bit of theater to it, especially in the use of lighting. Throughout the piece, Britney had a dialogue with the large spotlight, playing both herself and her father. These dialogues she had with her father often led to a “show” where different colored lights shone on the stage.

An important theme in the performance was the oppression of women in the industry and the differential treatment between women and men, especially when it came to how women were portrayed and talked about in the media. Glomnes talked about how female celebrities were often judged based on their appearance, sex appeal and their private lives, and how male celebrities were not. An example that stood out to me was when she talked about a contest for “Norway’s Sexiest Woman”, where the winner was a 17-year-old girl (Tone Damli), while “Norway’s Sexiest Man” that same year was a 47-year-old man (Morten Harket). This showed a clear difference in how young women and adult men were sexualized in the media.

When Britney was only 17, there was also a lot of emphasis on whether she was a virgin, who she had had sex with and who she had possibly been with. I found it particularly strange how much the media was preoccupied with this, and how often she was asked about her private life. At the same time, male celebrities were also asked if they had had sex with Britney. The show brought out in a good and direct way how female celebrities had to be "a virgin and innocent", but were still very much pressured to be sexual.

When I entered Oslo Nye Teater, I had expected a typical Britney show with lots of people on stage, bright colors, lights, costumes, singing and dancing. That's why I was surprised when I saw a simple stage with just one person wearing a black top and black pants. At first, I wasn't sure what to think, because this was completely different from the Britney I knew from her big and colorful music videos from the 2000s. There were no big dance numbers or spectacular stage shows, but eventually I thought it worked well. The show was about how Britney was pressured to sign deals and do concerts she didn't really want to do, and so I think it was fitting that she didn't end up doing a big Britney show on stage. The simple set design and costumes meant that there was more focus on Britney herself as a person than an artist, and in this way we got to see a much more vulnerable version.