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The Fear of 13
'The first thing you should know is that this is true. It's what actually happened.
I know it seems like it's a story – inside of a story – inside of a story – but that's how it is for most people. At least the ones in here.'
Nick's got a story to tell you. About how a routine traffic stop turned into a conviction for murder. About how he spent the next twenty-two years on Death Row. About how he finally petitioned the court, seeking not an appeal, but for his execution date. And about what happened next…
Based on the extraordinary true story of Nick Yarris – and on David Sington's documentary film about him – Lindsey Ferrentino's play The Fear of 13 was first performed at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2024, directed by Justin Martin and starring Adrien Brody.
This edition of the play contains an exclusive afterword by Nick Yarris about what he learned living on Death Row for over two decades.
Lindsey Ferrentino is an American playwright and screenwriter whose work – including Ugly Lies the Bone, Amy and the Orphans and The Queen of Versailles, among others – have been performed to great acclaim around the world.
'Lindsey Ferrentino writes with a moral conscience second to none among her generation of playwrights'Variety
'A brave playwright… a writer of dauntless conviction whose unflinching portraits are hard to come by outside of journalism'The New York Times
I know it seems like it's a story – inside of a story – inside of a story – but that's how it is for most people. At least the ones in here.'
Nick's got a story to tell you. About how a routine traffic stop turned into a conviction for murder. About how he spent the next twenty-two years on Death Row. About how he finally petitioned the court, seeking not an appeal, but for his execution date. And about what happened next…
Based on the extraordinary true story of Nick Yarris – and on David Sington's documentary film about him – Lindsey Ferrentino's play The Fear of 13 was first performed at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2024, directed by Justin Martin and starring Adrien Brody.
This edition of the play contains an exclusive afterword by Nick Yarris about what he learned living on Death Row for over two decades.
Lindsey Ferrentino is an American playwright and screenwriter whose work – including Ugly Lies the Bone, Amy and the Orphans and The Queen of Versailles, among others – have been performed to great acclaim around the world.
'Lindsey Ferrentino writes with a moral conscience second to none among her generation of playwrights'Variety
'A brave playwright… a writer of dauntless conviction whose unflinching portraits are hard to come by outside of journalism'The New York Times
122 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 24, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 23, 2024
3.5, rounded up.
I hadn't heard of Nick Yarris, the subject of this theatrical docudrama, until the premiere production debuted last month at the Donmar, with a splashy London stage debut by Oscar-winner Adrien Brody - but the premise seemed intriguing, and I have enjoyed other works by playwright Ferrentino (most notably her Down syndrome dramady Amy and the Orphans). The story is undeniably fascinating, but am not so sure it's best served by Ferrantino's dramatization of it.
The initial scenes seem a bit stilted, and the bombshell revelation (spoiler alert!) that Yarris is indeed innocent of the rape/murder that has landed him on death row is reserved till the halfway mark in the play - at which point the action slows to a crawl as we await the years until DNA testing eventually exonerates him. Then the play abruptly ends with his release, whereas perhaps the most interesting part of the story is the 20 years that followed - which Yarris sums up in an afterward that, alas, is NOT a part of the play itself.
I have not seen the documentary film from 2015 from which the playwright drew most of her material, but intend to rectify that post haste (it's on YouTube in its entirely, the link to which is below) - which I hope will at least explain the title, which is nowhere evident in the play itself.
Addendum: So - after viewing the 2015 film I am tempted to downgrade my initial rating of the play - since the film is INFINITELY better than its adaptation - but that wouldn't really be fair, and it's rather odious to compare competing mediums anyway. But the film not only fleshes out and explains some of the questionable material in the play (including that elusive title - which is that 'triskaidekaphobia' - the fear of the number 13 - is one of the peculiar words that autodidact Yarris encounters when he reads over 1000 books while in solitary confinement- which is symbolic of his awakening from the numbness he has felt while incarcerated; a few lines explaining such could have easily been added to the play and its omission leaves one in a quandary!) - but to hear the real Yarris narrate his own story is riveting (he's a natural storyteller) in a way that even an actor of Brody's caliber could not possibly attempt to capture (PS: the real Yarris is almost a dead ringer for Ed Harris, who SHOULD have done the play!)
There are some other missteps in the play version as well - late in the film Yarris recalls an episode from his childhood when he was raped by a stranger in the woods, and how that warped his sense of personhood and belonging, perhaps ameliorating his subsequent drug use and life of crime prior to incarceration - this is so mangled/coyly presented in the play script I wasn't even sure if that WAS what had happened to him.
Also, the play spends an inordinate amount of time on the relationship of Yarris to Jackie, a woman who takes up his cause and he eventually marries, but who then leaves him when his court case is unbearably prolonged - foregrounding a romance that Yarris only gives a brief mention to in the film, and seems to have been merely a means to help his cause, rather than the central relationship Ferrantino makes it out to be. At this point, I'd recommend skipping the play and just watching the film instead.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/202...
https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/th...
https://www.timeout.com/london/theatr...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXu1a...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ja1w...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXc0n...
I hadn't heard of Nick Yarris, the subject of this theatrical docudrama, until the premiere production debuted last month at the Donmar, with a splashy London stage debut by Oscar-winner Adrien Brody - but the premise seemed intriguing, and I have enjoyed other works by playwright Ferrentino (most notably her Down syndrome dramady Amy and the Orphans). The story is undeniably fascinating, but am not so sure it's best served by Ferrantino's dramatization of it.
The initial scenes seem a bit stilted, and the bombshell revelation (spoiler alert!) that Yarris is indeed innocent of the rape/murder that has landed him on death row is reserved till the halfway mark in the play - at which point the action slows to a crawl as we await the years until DNA testing eventually exonerates him. Then the play abruptly ends with his release, whereas perhaps the most interesting part of the story is the 20 years that followed - which Yarris sums up in an afterward that, alas, is NOT a part of the play itself.
I have not seen the documentary film from 2015 from which the playwright drew most of her material, but intend to rectify that post haste (it's on YouTube in its entirely, the link to which is below) - which I hope will at least explain the title, which is nowhere evident in the play itself.
Addendum: So - after viewing the 2015 film I am tempted to downgrade my initial rating of the play - since the film is INFINITELY better than its adaptation - but that wouldn't really be fair, and it's rather odious to compare competing mediums anyway. But the film not only fleshes out and explains some of the questionable material in the play (including that elusive title - which is that 'triskaidekaphobia' - the fear of the number 13 - is one of the peculiar words that autodidact Yarris encounters when he reads over 1000 books while in solitary confinement- which is symbolic of his awakening from the numbness he has felt while incarcerated; a few lines explaining such could have easily been added to the play and its omission leaves one in a quandary!) - but to hear the real Yarris narrate his own story is riveting (he's a natural storyteller) in a way that even an actor of Brody's caliber could not possibly attempt to capture (PS: the real Yarris is almost a dead ringer for Ed Harris, who SHOULD have done the play!)
There are some other missteps in the play version as well - late in the film Yarris recalls an episode from his childhood when he was raped by a stranger in the woods, and how that warped his sense of personhood and belonging, perhaps ameliorating his subsequent drug use and life of crime prior to incarceration - this is so mangled/coyly presented in the play script I wasn't even sure if that WAS what had happened to him.
Also, the play spends an inordinate amount of time on the relationship of Yarris to Jackie, a woman who takes up his cause and he eventually marries, but who then leaves him when his court case is unbearably prolonged - foregrounding a romance that Yarris only gives a brief mention to in the film, and seems to have been merely a means to help his cause, rather than the central relationship Ferrantino makes it out to be. At this point, I'd recommend skipping the play and just watching the film instead.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/202...
https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/th...
https://www.timeout.com/london/theatr...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXu1a...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ja1w...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXc0n...
December 24, 2024
An infinitely beautiful and captivating play! Overall, the play was fast-paced and kept the plot moving along, with amazing use of the stage. Nick's (Adrien Brody) narrative storytelling was beyond masterful—his raw voice and tragic eyes just pull you in. (Adrien Brody is so fine, especially in that scene where he's stripped to his underwear, showering, and smoking a cigarette, telling his traumatic past—I- I just can't. Words cannot.) His character was clever, witty, funny, with a quiet yet weary strength to him. I was fully engrossed in the story for the almost too-short duration, and I felt like I was alongside him experiencing his highs and lows. I felt like I was fully a part of Nick's and Jackie's romance, and I desperately wished for them to end up together. I was devastated that they couldn't be together, after waiting 9 years, I couldn't believe it. 😭 The brief interludes of the prisoner men singing were just heavenly. I was suspended in those moments and I wished they'd never end. At the end, when Nick decides to start a new life, walking out into the light, people were in tears. I can't imagine the hardship of someone made to endure 22 years on death row, for a crime they didn't even commit. Even though the play was dramatized and deviates from Nick Yarris's real life, it's still a great work and i'm glad I got to experience a piece of his story. It was honestly an unreal experience where I descended into a story and then released back into the world in a daze. I'm just amazed when people come together to make such beautiful art.
June 26, 2025
4.5 stars. Not only an incredible story, but I also loved the visualisation of how this play is set out. Some really strong moments. The letting go of Jackie 💔 man my heart. But the beauty of his freedom. I am so glad this story has been told! 💫
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 28, 2025
So beautifully written and genuinely heartbreaking. But as Nick Yarris says if you feel bad for me then you haven’t understood me. Paraphrased. I heard it in your voice. You would do his story justice.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews