Theatre / Reviews
Review: Nine Sixteenths, Tobacco Factory Theatres – ‘Powerful, clever, funny and fierce’
The 2004 Superbowl, played in Houston, Texas, between American Football teams the Carolina Panthers and the New England Patriots was notable not for the result (32-29 to the Patriots, if you’re interested) but by a fleeting incident during the traditional half-time entertainment which came to be known as the ‘Wardrobe Malfunction’.
Justin Timberlake, who was performing with Janet Jackson, somehow managed to dislodge her costume, exposing a breast that was covered by a nipple shield. The incident lasted for precisely nine-sixteenths of a second, but the controversy and outrage it caused would resonate for years to come.
This incident and its timing is the starting point for theatremaker Paula Varjack’s clever, funny and fierce show that describes what happens when a black artist’s career becomes defined and derailed by a ‘moment’ – a moment that encompasses white male privilege, the nascent power of the internet, the outrage of the right-wing ‘moral majority’ and the sheer fury of traditional media that made sure Janet Jackson was cast to the shadows for a number of years while Timberlake’s career flourished.
Photo: courtesy of Paula Varjack
Accompanied by an ensemble of performers including Pauline Mayers, Julienne Doko, Chia Phoenix and Varjack herself, the show exposes the savagery of the backlash and scrutinises that reaction using physical theatre, dance and some extraordinary lip-syncing.
At the time of the Malfunction, the clip-and-share culture that would define platforms such as YouTube and TikTok was in its infancy, yet we see strong foreshadowing of the way powerful black women will be treated by ever-ravenous social and legacy media in the years to come.
Varjack shows us her youthful enthusiasm for Janet Jackson and, having explored hip-hop, ragga, rave and jungle, how she rediscovers her deep admiration for the artist in later years. That rekindling runs parallel to her discovering what happened to Jackson following the incident and how everyone from TV talk show host David Letterman to CBS boss Les Moonves sought to ridicule, humiliate and eventually cancel the star, driven on by unabashed racism and misogyny.
Nine Sixteenths cast – photo: Christa Holka
At times, the cast addresses the audience directly, smashing down the fourth wall to express their own fears and desires as both performers and women of colour. While strong and powerful, this section is perhaps a little long, almost (but not quite) undercutting the punchy messages emerging from the performance’s central storyline.
Even so, it would seem that for a section of the ageing white male population, lessons that could’ve been learned from the Malfunction and its fallout have been all but ignored. Just a day before this performance, Donald Trump’s grubby pawprints were all over his phone as he publicly dissed the Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny’s 2026 Super Bowl performance as “an affront to the Greatness of America”. Not hard to read the naked racism between the lines here – plus ca change, eh?
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Nine Sixteenths is at Tobacco Factory Theatres on February 9-10 at 7.30pm. For late ticket availability, check www.tobaccofactorytheatres.com.
Main photo: Tobacco Factory Theatres
Read next:
- Review: Living Spit’s Beauty and the Beast, Tobacco Factory Theatres – ‘A sharp, exceptional parody; about as fulfilling as theatre can be’
- Adam Kammerling’s ‘Seder’: a dynamic non-linear storytelling experience
- Review: Rapunzel: A Hairy Tale, Tobacco Factory Theatres – A tale told with charm, imagination and fun’
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