How a true story of justice inspired the Adrien Brody and Tessa Thompson-led ‘The Fear of 13’ on Broadway
Nick Yarris, the topic of Lindsey Ferrentino’s acclaimed drama, has actively formed the play and the artists concerned since its 2024 London premiere.
Who is Nick Yarris? Adrian Brody needs you to know.
In Lindsey Ferrentino’s bio-drama The Fear of 13the two-time Oscar winner makes his Broadway debut enjoying Yarris, a Pennsylvania man who served 22 years on loss of life row for a rape and homicide he did not commit — till DNA testing proved his innocence. The play and actor have been up for Olivier Awards for the present’s 2024 London world premiere.
“He’s a remarkable man,” Brody mentioned of Yarris throughout a press convention for the play, which begins March 19 at the James Earl Jones Theater. “I feel a responsibility in telling his story faithfully. Nick manages to exude this tremendous interest in others. He’s worked tirelessly on exonerating others.”
Yarris really had assist in that regard. Hedda star and fellow Broadway newcomer Tessa Thompson co-stars as Jacki, a character inspired by the real-life jail volunteer who performs a important position in Yarris’s exoneration and private life.
“Over the course of the play, [Jacki] “You come to understand that there is such injustice,” Thompson mentioned. Working on the play has been eye-opening, too, for the complete forged and artistic group.
Nick Yarris’s story goes from display to stage
Ferrentino was inspired to dramatize Yarris’s story after watching David Sington’s 2015 documentary The Fear of 13very like how a nonfiction movie inspired her script for the musical The Queen of Versaillesseen on Broadway earlier this season.
“The documentary is just Nick Yarris sitting on a stool telling his life story,” Ferrentino mentioned. “It just felt to me like theatre. He’s such a theatrical storyteller and has lived this extraordinary truth-is-stranger-than-fiction life. It felt like it would just make such great material for the stage.”
Ferrentino developed a friendship and mutual belief with Yarris, which was invaluable in the shaping and improvement of the play. He’s formally credited as a story guide for the Broadway manufacturing.
“I spent a lot of time with Nick,” she mentioned. “I hear from him now on a daily basis, and for the last, I’d say, two to three years.”
A compelling author himself who honed his language and studying abilities in jail, Yarris printed the memoir Seven Days to Live after its launch. It was later re-titled The Fear of 13 and preceded the documentary.
“He’s a remarkable storyteller,” mentioned Brody. “So much of what this play speaks to is the ability to transport oneself out of harrowing conditions and circumstances through story.”
Tony Award-winning director David Cromer, who joined the manufacturing for the Broadway run, described Yarris as “wildly generous with us and supportive. He comes at us,” he mentioned, “with all the information he can share and a great deal of faith.”
Nick Yarris presents a distinctive perspective
Conversations with Yarris have been putting in a quantity of methods. Cromer mentioned Yarris supplies a reminder that a individual’s life can flip on a dime — and flip very darkish, very quick — simply because “one thing happens.” In Yarris’s case, a visitors cease set off the chain of occasions resulting in his wrongful conviction.
It’s terrifying,” the director mentioned, “to meet someone whose experience is so much more extreme than yours.”
Ferrentino finds herself always marveling at Yarris’s perseverance and unbeatable spirit. “Nick has a life experience that so few people on this planet have, so I find his perspective on everything — from the show to my life — just completely unique and valuable,” she mentioned.
“He has a different perspective on the way time moves. He has a different perspective on aggression in the world, on interpersonal dynamics,” Ferrentino added. “He often likes to say he’s my spiritual advisor. He likes giving life advice because he has lived through so much.”
Brody summed up Yarris succinctly: “He’s a very strong individual,” he mentioned, “but he’s had a pretty harrowing journey.” Now, after greater than 20 years because it started, his odyssey arrives on Broadway.
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