In a post-pandemic world slowly but surely finding its way back to the norm, international theatre collaborations are still a rarity, with the strong relationships and high costs that go into such productions. For local theatre company Nine Years Theatre (NYT) however, they’re leading the charge with their upcoming collaborative work – Immortal Variables, an original play co-produced with Hsing Legend Youth Theatre, the youth wing of Taiwan’s Contemporary Legend Theatre.

“The project started back in 2018, where several months before, I met the international manager of Contemporary Legend Theatre while at a conference in New York,” says Nelson Chia, NYT artistic director, and writer/director of Immortal Variables. “They happened to be looking for someone to work with their youth wing in directing them for a more contemporary production, and we saw it as a possible collaboration opportunity. I visited Taiwan after that to watch some of their performances, met up with the artistic directors, and that began a back and forth of workshops to start production.”

“While we initially meant to present it in 2020, the pandemic stopped plans, and we took a break, until we found the right time to restart the process back in 2022,” he adds. “A lot of it uses our actors with Chinese Opera training as the foundation, but not necessarily inserting Chinese Opera for the sake of it, and instead focus more on the philosophy and aesthetics of Chinese Opera to inform the physicality in the drama. I’m just glad that we managed to save this project, maintain the dialogue and relationship, and bring it to fruition, especially considering how many projects ended up getting shelved indefinitely due to the pandemic.”

Inspired by the rising tension between technology and ethics, Immortal Variables is a futuristic thriller that sees a country’s president kidnapped, taking place in a world where there exists a system to predict the future through data analysis, technology secretly planted to control human minds, an anti-government organisation and monitored phone calls. As the plot thickens, the play explores issues such as data privacy, the influence of technology and social media, and promises twists and tricks to keep audience members guessing till the end.

“At NYT, we’ve always had the goal of telling stories in a creative way. We started off primarily doing translations of classic works, which people have associated us with, but as far back as 5 years ago, we’ve already been expanding beyond that and staying fluid when it comes to the works we choose to present,” says Nelson. “I believe that theatre has many forms, and NYT has shown that we can do both more accessible mass market shows, or more small-scale, intimate work. With Immortal Variables, we’re also showcasing how we’re able to experiment more, with the way we’re working with Chinese Opera actors, all while maintaining and showcasing our creative nature.”

With its Chinese title 八仙变数, Immortal Variables takes a leaf from the Chinese ‘ba xian’ (eight immortals), and features characters inspired by some of these celestial beings, forming the resistance group within the play. “Think of the ba xian as a collective of deities who change over the years, depending on peoples’ needs and beliefs. The members of the ba xian change, but they do have certain archetypes that represent the people’s wisdom and values, and all it takes is hard work and dedication to become one,” says Nelson. “It’s a bit like Marvel’s Avengers, gathering these people with special powers and wisdom, except that they originate from the people themselves.”

What’s also exciting is the tech-driven setting NYT has decided to go in with Immortal Variables, with a near-future world that deals with surveillance and internet espionage. “You can practically see it happening soon, and it’s all based on speculating ahead on how technology might be used or misused. But what we’re interested in isn’t the sci-fi spectacle, but what technology can and will. do to humanity,” says Nelson. “It’s really about how much control we should have, and all the moral and ethical issues surrounding it, the way we influence others. or the danger of powerful tech falling into the wrong hands, and the human struggle underneath all that.”

In any collaboration, finding a common understanding and working style is important to establish at the beginning, so everyone is on the same page regardless of differences in background and experience. For NYT, a company which has always prioritised and championed the power of the collective ensemble, this is achieved through training. “Our training is a way of providing a fundamental requirement to the actors, where they all have the same baseline and expectations. Having our Taiwanese actors onboard has been very welcome, because as Chinese Opera actors, they’re also very used to and understand the value of training, and some of our methods, like Suzuki or Viewpoints, translate quite well to Chinese Opera,” says Nelson.

“In addition, our Singaporean actors, besides myself, have also attended our workshops or worked with us before,” says actress Mia Chee. “Training is essential to warm up, and also to work out how the play will flow, and we can. all work towards understanding the common vision we’re working towards, and that training creates a common language and understanding for everyone. Nelson isn’t a restrictive director, and he allows us to engage in play and exploration as well instead of having a fixed direction in mind.”

“For an experimental piece like this, when actors are having fun working together onstage, it’s a good thing, because they bond better, and I’ll only collect them all a bit later in rehearsals. What we’re trying to do is extract the essence and aesthetics of Chinese Opera and how it informs our creation, and allows that space for experimenting, even this idea of Chinese Opera actors from Taiwan working together with Singaporean actors, is in itself a new experience,” says Nelson.

“As a Chinese Opera actor, our focus is always on the human relationships, the emotions and the technical aspects of singing, all of which is tied to the music and songs,” says actor Howie Chu Po-Cheng, from Hsing Legend Youth Theatre. “But with Immortal Variables, Nelson has been putting focus on body language and physicality as our primary mode of communication. It’s a lot of new discoveries for me, because we rarely use our real voices when singing and always keep things very controlled. But now, it’s about going beyond being pleasant and perfect, but to make it more human, more relatable, and it’s an exciting process for me.”

“I think what this collaboration has brought for me is this opportunity to experiment more, even with stuff I’m not familiar with, and a willingness to try more,” he adds. “It’s a slightly different process from Chinese Opera, where it’s not just about getting the lines down, but also the idea of really feeling it in our bodies as well, reacting to each other onstage, but always comfortable in the space that NYT has created, and we got very used to the working style very quickly.”

Even beyond having actors from Hsing Legend Youth Theatre, the collaboration extends to even the costume design, where the team has commissioned students from the Department of Fashion Design at Shu-Te University Ke Wang Jia-Le and Huang Chih-Hao to provide the costumes, as part of their interdisciplinary university-industry collaboration model. “The costumes are specially designed for this production, by the two student designers, under tutelage of their teacher. They’re not big and bombastic, but they’re certainly different, very deconstructed, and use distinct fabrics and colours to differentiate the colours,” says Mia Chee.

With any collaboration, it also opens up the doors for self-discovery through new experiences and reflection, and of course, the hope that more will come out of it in the future. “For us, we’ve been training in Chinese Opera since the age of 3, and it can be tough at times, but it makes us recall why we train, not just for the body, but also for our mentality,” says Howie. “Onstage, we are not robots, and beyond executing our roles well, we also need to be able to find the emotional depth of the characters and dialogue, which NYT has really reminded me of the importance of.”

“Thinking about the differences between Taiwan and Singapore, I’ve been reminded of how different our two countries are, especially when it comes to them having a dominant monoculture versus our multiculturalism,” says Nelson. “It’s hard to pin down what makes Singapore culture, and it’s interesting to speak to the Taiwan side and have such dialogues. But really, what makes this so memorable is how all these actors we met five years ago, all the backstage and production crew, it’s all these friends and relationships that I think will surpass the final product of the show.”

Immortal Variables (八仙变数) plays from 6th to 8th October 2023 at The Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre @ Wild Rice, Funan. Tickets available from SISTIC

Nine Years Theatre’s popular 9-Fan and Gen-9 membership schemes have returned for Immortal Variables. New 9-Fan members may purchase a one-time Cat 1 ticket at a special price of $48 while existing members get to enjoy a 15% discount. The benefits for Gen-9 Membership Club continue for members aged 16 – 24 years old, who will get to purchase a Cat 1 ticket at $28. 11 Students, National Servicemen (NSF), senior citizens as well as Books Kinokuniya members, PAssion Card holders and HometeamNS members can also enjoy a 10% discount off ticket prices. Tickets are available on all SISTIC outlets and online channels at $35 – $65 (not inclusive of SISTIC charge).

Production Credits:

Director/Playwright: Nelson Chia

Cast: Mia Chee, Ryan Ang, Ching Shu Yi, Howie Chu, Yang Jui-Yu, Eason Lin, Huang Jo-Lin, and Ivy Chen

Set Design: Wong Chee Wai

Lighting Design: Adrian Tan

Music Composition:Vick Low

Costume Design: Ke Wang Jia-Le and Huang Chih-Hao