Adrien Brody and Tessa Thompson Make Their Broadway Debuts in The Fear of 13
4/21/202632 min
The podcast continues its spring season theater coverage this week! The hotly anticipated play from writer Lindsey Ferrentino, The Fear of 13, opened last week on Broadway at the James Earl Jones Theatre. Adapted from a documentary of the same name, the play is a semi-fictionalized depiction of the real-life events of Nick Yarris, a man who was wrongfully accused and convicted of rape and murder, and spent 22 years imprisoned, before finally being exonerated by DNA evidence. Two seasoned actors, Adrien Brody and Tessa Thompson, bring this story to life, with Brody in the role of Yarris and Thompson playing a prison volunteer with whom he falls in love.
For both actors, this was their Broadway debut, and they sat down with Senior Editor of Features and News, Marley Marius, to talk about it. They talk about the theater rituals and also the nerves that go into performing this work. “I've had a lot of trepidation if I’m going to be honest,” Brody said of telling Yarris’ story, “just because of the enormity of the task.” They spoke about how this story is not only the story of Yarris, but an unfortunately relatable tale for so many folks in America who have family and loved ones in the carceral system.
The pair reflected on the immense obligation of telling a real and alive person’s story. Yarris, now a free man, has been highly instrumental in the rehearsal process, attending table reads and performances alike. He also joined the pair on the red carpet for opening night. When it comes to this kind of work “whether they’re in the room or not, they are in the room,” Thompson explained, “So then when they're literally in the room, it's a completely different thing.”
Crucial to Yarris’ experience in prison was his love of reading, a love so strong he referred to it as an addiction to books. Thompson, in an homage to her character Jacki who is a PhD candidate in poetry, has created a little library of books in her dressing room. There, she keeps several volumes of Charles Simic poetry and has also been known to read Mary Oliver and Nabokov’s Lolita (a problematic fav of hers).
When they aren’t in rehearsal or performances, Brody and Thompson have pretty distinct approaches to how they spend their time. Brody, a homebody and true multi-hyphenate, busies himself making music—or “beats” as Thompson fondly refers to them—and cooking sweet potato stews. Thompson, on the other hand, is looking forward to having a bit more free time now to see other shows on this season and find the little speakeasies tucked in and around the theater district.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMarley Marius· Host0:00
[upbeat music] This is The Run Through. I'm Marley Marius, senior editor of features and news, and I'm delighted to be back on the show with more theater coverage from this amazing season. I'm speaking to Adrian Brody and Tessa Thompson, who currently star in The Fear of 13. The Fear of 13 opened last week on April 15th at the James Earl Jones Theatre. That show is based on a documentary of the same name about Nick Yarris. He was a man who was wrongfully imprisoned for 22 years and then was exonerated based on DNA evidence. And during that time, he was visited by a volunteer and fell in love with this woman, and they have this very interesting romance where they are never touching, but they are, you know, speaking through glass, and they're writing each other letters, and they're talking on the phone. And it's, like, quite romantic, and it's beautifully portrayed on the stage by Adrian and Tessa. So we have a, a really interesting conversation about both of them returning to theater for the first time in a long time, both of them making their Broadway debuts, and what the process of putting that show together and hearing from the audience and doing the stage door has looked like for both of them. And also just how they are sort of regrouping and carrying on their lives outside of the show. They have very different approaches to this. [laughs] Tessa seems to be having the time of her life. Adrian is making stew. So