Nine Sixteenths review – what Janet Jackson’s ‘Nipplegate’ scandal really exposed

Paula Varjack’s kinetic play uses lip syncing and dance routines to show how prejudice turned a ‘wardrobe malfunction’ into a career disaster

The year is 2004 and the Super Bowl halftime show is about to begin. What would later become known as “Nipplegate” – in which Justin Timberlake ripped part of Janet Jackson’s bodice, briefly exposing her right breast – will be broadcast to 70,000 spectators in the stadium and more than 140 million TV viewers. This one “wardrobe malfunction”, lasting just nine sixteenths of a second, will lead to Jackson being blacklisted from much of the music industry for years, sending her career into a spiral while Timberlake’s continued to thrive.

Paula Varjack’s play interrogates the role that gender, race and age played in that fallout, while also serving as a loud and proud love letter to Jackson and her music. Initially inspired by a 2019 trip to Glastonbury, where Varjack saw Jackson perform and wondered why she had never played the festival before, the show highlights the injustice of a white, male-controlled and favoured music industry. Performed alongside fellow devisers Pauline Mayers, Julienne Doko, Chia Phoenix and BSL performer Vinessa Brant, the result is a kinetic multimedia analysis that uses lip syncing, killer dance routines, onscreen BSL by Cherie Gordon and puppetry to build their case. Directed by Emily Aboud, the production erupts with high-speed spirit.

But it presents a bleak picture. During an interview with David Letterman, Jackson was continually ridiculed for “Nipplegate” and clearly desperate for the chance to just move on. In 2018, Timberlake was invited back to the Super Bowl half-time show with open arms. It’s a pattern that continues: there are voiceovers featuring derogatory headlines about Meghan Markle and Diane Abbott, as well as covering the abuse Francesca Amewudah-Rivers received when she was cast opposite Tom Holland in Jamie Lloyd’s Romeo and Juliet.

The play’s third act, which sees the cast speak openly about their fears in their personal lives, the industry and beyond, veers into a more broad-brush criticism of society compared with the more focused early sections. But all of it remains powerful, necessary theatre.

• At Brixton House, London, until 30 May