Nine Years Theatre reprises acclaimed Twelve Angry Men play with multicultural casting
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Nine Years Theatre's restaging of Twelve Angry Men will feature 78-year-old veteran actor Wu Weiqiang (centre).
ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN
Follow topic:
SINGAPORE – In 2013, the newly incorporated Nine Years Theatre (NYT) made a splash and held court with its debut – a sold-out Mandarin staging of American playwright Reginald Rose’s 1954 jury room drama Twelve Angry Men.
The verdict was in the unanimously positive reviews and NYT was decorated with four prizes at The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards.
Twelve years later, NYT is restaging the play that made its name at a bigger venue. Its artistic director Nelson Chia says: “I’ll be lying if I say there is no pressure, but I usually don’t think too much about it. I’m also at the stage in my career where I feel more confident than before that I can handle this play with more depth.”
Twelve Angry Men plays at the Singtel Waterfront Theatre at Esplanade for five shows from Nov 7 to 9. Even with more than three times the seats to sell than its original run, the best seats for the show, which is eligible for SG Culture Pass, have been snapped up.
In the play, translated into Mandarin by Chia, 12 jurors of clashing personalities and various prejudices find themselves deciding the fate of a 16-year-old boy tried for killing his abusive father. In 2013, an ST review praised Chia for bringing “subtlety and a taut pace to a talky work”.
Theatregoers who saw the show’s first run will remember Wong Chee Wai’s award-winning set – a claustrophobic jury room with a forced perspective. The set will return, reimagined for the larger stage.
But Chia has some fresh ideas for the casting and script that will lend the play more urgency in today’s world.
“There is a clear intention to make the casting more multicultural. Not only in Singapore, but also around the world, cosmopolitan cities are getting more multicultural, but the world is moving into protectionism and becoming more right-wing,” says Chia, who transplants Rose’s American setting to an ambiguous setting that is reflective of a cosmopolitan city.
In addition to a predominantly Chinese cast, the production also features Chinese-Indian actor Dwayne Lau, Eurasian actor Tan Guo Lian Sutton and American actor Pauli Haakenson.
The restaging of Twelve Angry Men will feature a more multicultural and plural cast, says director Nelson Chia.
ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN
There is also diversity in age, ranging from 26-year-old actor Clement Yeo to 78- year-old veteran actor Wu Weiqiang, who acted in Mediacorp dramas such as The Awakening (1984) and The Coffee Shop (1985).
The cast is rounded off by a mix of actors from both the Mandarin and English-language theatre scenes.
Actor Tay Kong Hui, the only original cast member in the new production, says that the passage of time has helped his performance. “Twelve years ago, I may need to put on my full attire to find the weight the character’s supposed to carry. But age and time have given me that kind of weight, and I don’t have to search for it any more.”
Chia, who hopes that audiences will be convinced to be less absolute in their firmly held beliefs, says: “Twelve years ago, I thought the play was more about one man against society or groupthink. Twelve years later, I don’t think it’s about that. Eventually, all the jurors’ decisions have shifted, so, really, it’s about how our beliefs are being subverted by others’ beliefs.”
Twelve Angry Men director Nelson Chia (second from left) reminding his 12 actors to listen more intently in rehearsals.
ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN
“In rehearsal, I keep telling the actors: ‘No, listen to what he says. Is it going to change you at this point in time? If not, when? How do you change?’” he says.
With such a large cast, his task as director is a strenuous one – choreographing every argument and assessing its impact on everyone in the room.
But it is exactly because of the failure to listen, he says, that today’s world is besieged by war and chaos. Meanwhile, the glut of modern information can often make people today feel responsible but helpless.
“In all of our work, we’re trying to tell the audience, ‘You can change yourself. You can’t change the world, but you can change yourself.’”
With Twelve Angry Men, NYT comes full circle. Co-founder and company director Mia Chee, who is married to Chia, says: “I still remember at the end of every show back then, during the curtain call, I would announce that we are a new company.”
Twelve Angry Men was the first play staged by Nine Years Theatre co-founders Nelson Chia and Mia Chee after the company was incorporated in 2012.
ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN
Today, NYT is one of the few Mandarin-language theatre companies. It even brought its Mandarin meta-theatrical play Waiting For Audience to Milan in June. After observing that Asian acts at the likes of Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Festival d’Avignon were focused on physical theatre and had very little spoken language, Chee insisted NYT stage a text-based work abroad.
In 2013, Chia had boldly asked the Esplanade for not one, but three commissions in a row – helping the young company start building its audience base. Twelve years later, Chia is aware its base needs to grow faster and the company has been at work courting audiences across disciplines, venues and languages.
Asked what bold request he would ask to take NYT to the next level, Chia says it would be to look for ways to interest overseas presenters in programming Singapore theatre. “It’s a time to explore how we can have a network of different art centres come together and work with local artists on international collaborations. For individual companies, it’s not that easy.”
Book It/Twelve Angry Men
Where: Singtel Waterfront Theatre at Esplanade, 8 Raffles Avenue str.sg/9tj6
When: Nov 7, 8pm; Nov 8 and 9, 3 and 8pm
Admission: $50 to $70, SG Culture Pass eligible
Info:
