Adrien Brody’s Broadway Debut Tells One of the Most Unbelievable True Stories You’ll See This Season
In The Fear of 13, Brody and Tessa Thompson bring Nick Yarris’ wrongful conviction to the James Earl Jones Theatre
What to Know
- Adrien Brody makes his Broadway debut in The Fear of 13, starring as wrongfully convicted death row inmate Nick Yarris opposite Tessa Thompson, beginning performances March 19 at the James Earl Jones Theatre
- Written by Lindsey Ferrentino and directed by Tony winner David Cromer, the play adapts the 2015 documentary about Yarris, who spent 22 years on death row—much of it in solitary confinement—before exonerating himself
- Fresh from a London West End run, The Fear of 13 brings the extraordinary true story of wrongful conviction, resilience and redemption to Broadway for a limited engagement
Lindsey Ferrentino’s play The Fear of 13, based on David Sington's 2015 documentary of the same name about how a routine traffic stop led to a murder conviction, is headed for Broadway fresh off a run in London’s West End. Directed by Tony winner David Cromer, the play depicts the extraordinary true story of Nick Yarris, played by Adrien Brody, and the conversations he had with prison volunteer Jacki, played by Tessa Thompson. Broadway.com attended a recent press event for the production and spoke to the cast and creative team before the show begins performances on March 19 at the James Earl Jones Theatre.
"The play is, on its surface, about Nick Yarris, who's a man who was wrongfully imprisoned on death row for 22 years and spent most of those years in solitary confinement. His only company were the books that he was reading. He learned through reading and through his relationship with a prison volunteer how to tell his own story in a new way, and in doing so was able to exonerate himself," says Ferrentino. "No writer could make it up. It is one of those truth is stranger than fiction [stories]. You can't believe someone has lived the extreme circumstances that he has, before his incarceration, during and also after."
Thompson, making her Broadway debut in the play, has nothing but praise for Ferrentino's book. "Lindsey Ferrentino took Nick Yarris' real life story and what he communicates in the documentary and made it into this immersive, theatrical, profoundly moving, funny, delightful and scary piece all at once," she says. "I think she really captures the spirit of Nick Yarris himself, having spent time with him. He is a wonderful storyteller. When you listen to his stories, you feel like you're in the room with all the characters inside of it and I think that's what Lindsey has done with the writing."
Director David Cromer joins for the Broadway production, with Justin Martin having directed in 2024 at the Donmar Warehouse. “I think to use a documentary as a jumping off place and then to make something so theatrical out of it is really beautiful,” says Cromer, who also directed this season's psychological thriller Bug at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.
“On the stage to be able to harness and inhabit this whole journey and the kind of endurance marathon that Nick and Jacki had endured lends itself to a stage play, because this builds and builds and builds and there's a yearning for hope and defeat and hope,” says Brody. The two-time Academy Award-winning star of The Pianist and The Brutalist makes his Broadway debut portraying Yarris, following his Olivier-nominated London stage debut in the role.
For Thompson, this is the gift—or rather, play—that keeps on giving. “I'm newer to the piece and so is Cromer, so we're making discoveries in real time because we just haven't had as much time.” This discovery process is part of the reason why Thompson describes this experience as “incredible,” adding: "I think that's also a testament to a piece that's great, is that you can continue to find new things all the time."
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