Twelve Angry Men returns with multicultural cast

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.

- Shawn Hoo

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.