Twelve Angry Men

An award-winning Singaporean Mandarin theatre company, Nine Years Theatre (NYT) is dedicated to the creation of high-quality performances. NYT sees Chinese culture as the foundation of its work, but not the centre of its practice. They believe in the uniqueness of local Chinese culture and aspire to recognise and celebrate the multicultural identity of the Singaporean Chinese through theatre.

NYT tells stories through live performances that remind audiences of their shared humanity. Since their inception, NYT has been invested in the training of actors, in order to create work that is consistent in quality. They strive to entertain audiences in ways that are honest and thoughtful. Their work is recognised for being accessible and culturally layered, possessing deep sensibilities that speak to audiences from all backgrounds. Fluid in scale and genre, NYT creates performances ranging from original plays and transcreations, to interdisciplinary and international collaborations.

In recognition of their contributions to the promotion, enrichment and development of Singaporean Chinese culture, NYT was awarded the Singapore Chinese Cultural Contribution Award (Organisation) presented by the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre in 2024.

Nine Years Theatre is supported by the National Arts Council under the Major Company Scheme from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2028. 

Nelson Chia is a director, performer, playwright, acting teacher, and theatre lecturer. He has won Best Director four times and Best Actor twice at The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards. In 2012, Nelson became the first Singaporean artist to be commissioned by Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay for three consecutive years to present a major theatre work at the annual Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts.

In 2017, he transcreated Cultural Medallion writer Yeng Pway Ngon’s seminal novel Art Studio for the stage, which was commissioned by Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) as the opening programme for the festival that year. In 2021, he collaborated with the renowned SITI Company from New York to present a hybrid version of Chekhov’s Three Sisters at SIFA 2020/21. Other commissioning and artistic partners he has worked with include Macau Arts Festival, Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre, M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, Singapore Writers’ Festival, The Substation, The Arts House, World Shakespeare Congress, T.H.E Dance Company and Contemporary Legend Theatre (Taiwan), to name a few.

Nelson’s directorial works are marked by detailed and dynamic ensemble work. His original scripts and transcreations are known to be culturally layered, possessing sensibilities that speak to audiences from all backgrounds. In 2012, Nelson, with his wife Mia Chee, co-founded Nine Years Theatre (NYT)—currently the only company under the National Arts Council’s Major Company Scheme that positions itself as a Singapore Mandarin theatre company. NYT sees Chinese culture as the foundation of its work but not the centre of its practice. It believes in the uniqueness of local Chinese culture and aspires to recognise and celebrate themulticultural identity of the Singaporean Chinese through theatre.

Reginald Rose (born December 10, 1920, in Manhattan, New York City) was an acclaimed American screenwriter and producer, best known for his work in television and film. A U.S. Army First Lieutenant during World War II (1942–1946), Rose began his television writing career in 1951 with CBS and went on to write for all three major U.S. television networks—ABC, CBS and NBC. He is most celebrated for his powerful courtroom drama 12 Angry Men (1957), as well as his work on Studio One (1948) and the award-winning series The Defenders (1961).