The Fear of 13 is a play by American playwright Lindsey Ferrentino, based on David Sington's 2015 documentary of the same name. It follows death row inmate Nick Yarris as he attempts to overturn his convictions for rape and murder with DNA evidence, eventually with the support and love of a prison volunteer.
The Fear of 13 premiered at the Donmar Warehouse in London on October 10, 2024, starring Adrien Brody as Yarris and Nana Mensah as prison volunteer Jackie Schaffer. While the show received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, it was sold out throughout the duration of its run, playing until November 30. At the 2025 Laurence Olivier Awards, The Fear of 13 received a nomination for Best New Play, and Brody was nominated for Best Actor. In 2026, the play was restaged on Broadway, with Brody reprising his role as Yarris and Tessa Thompson playing the role of Jacki, a reworked version of Yarris's love interest. The show opened on April 15 at the James Earl Jones Theatre to lukewarm reviews. Though the Broadway production was initially scheduled for a limited run until July 12, it ultimately closed two weeks early.
Synopsis Nick Yarris is a death row inmate who, at the start of the play, has been incarcerated in the Huntingdon State Prison for sixteen years. When he meets Jacki, a volunteer with the Western Pennsylvania Coalition Against the Death Penalty, he begins to strike up a friendship with her, in part because he is one of the few inmates who does not harass her when she enters the prison. The two gradually bond over their shared love of literature: having spent most of his days in isolation, Nick has become a voracious reader in order to fill the time. As their relationship grows stronger, Nick regales Jacki with anecdotes from his life, ranging from his misadventures with childhood friends to his 30-day escape to Florida from the custody of county sheriffs, while en route from the Pennsylvania prison to a court hearing. Neither she nor the audience can be sure how many of his stories are true.
Nick eventually confides in Jacki that he was wrongfully convicted, a situation that occurred after he erroneously accused a childhood acquaintance of committing the rape and murder of Linda Mae Craig, in an attempt to lighten lesser charges he acquired after a heated encounter with a police officer. Jacki commits to helping Nick overturn his conviction; eventually, the two fall in love. Over the course of several years, the couple attempts to prove Nick's innocence with the emerging technology of DNA profiling, though these efforts are repeatedly thwarted due to the mishandling of evidence. Jacki even marries Nick, thinking he will soon be free. Eventually, however, she decides to leave him, having come to the conclusion that his appeals are hopeless. After this, Nick pens a letter to the assigned judge requesting his execution, but instead his lawyer informs him that new DNA testing has finally exonerated him.
In the wake of this news, Nick takes a long shower, which causes him to reflect on the sexual assault he experienced at nine years old, an incident whose traumatic after-effects he believes set him on the tragic path his life took. Once released, Nick delivers a monologue extolling the small pleasures in life and remembering his childhood dog.
Development
During the COVID-19 lockdown period, playwright Lindsey Ferrentino encountered the documentary The Fear of 13, which depicts death row exoneree Nick Yarris narrating stories from his incarceration, on the streaming service Netflix. Having felt unmoored by the extended isolation of the pandemic, Ferrentino became drawn to adapting non-fiction stories in her work as a way to ground herself; her book for the musical The Queen of Versailles, based on the 2012 documentary of the same name, also emerged from this period. While watching The Fear of 13, she was particularly compelled by Yarris's "deeply theatrical" manner of narrating stories. Though the documentary only makes a passing mention of Yarris's eventual marriage to Jackie Schaffer, an anti-death penalty advocate who bonded with him during his imprisonment, Ferrentino felt that this relationship would make an effective premise for a dramatic narrative of his story. After coming up with the idea to adapt The Fear of 13 into a stage play, Ferrentino began reaching out to Yarris, texting with him and visiting him in Los Angeles, California. She would gradually cultivate a friendship with Yarris while consulting with him.
Ferrentino had actor Adrien Brody in mind to portray Nick Yarris early in the development process; she has described him as being "deeply sensitive and intellectual, but street smart and savvy" in a way that reminded her of Yarris. She initially met with Brody about playing a character in a potential film adaptation of her play Amy and the Orphans, where she also provided him with an early draft of The Fear of 13. Primarily a screen actor, Brody had not previously acted onstage as an adult; his lone professional theatrical credit prior to The Fear of 13 came from a Theater for the New City production of the play Family Pride in the 50s, in which he appeared at age 12. Nonetheless, while he was not actively seeking out a theatrical project at the time, Ferrentino's draft moved him to such an extent that he was eager to participate in the production. He has stated that he "could not get through [the script] without crying" the first few times he read it. After agreeing to star in the show, Brody began closely collaborating with Ferrentino on subsequent drafts of the play, refining the language Yarris uses in order to convey his background as a juvenile delinquent. Brody even wrote a draft of a monologue he delivers in the play during the development process.
Though the play retains the title of the documentary on which it was based, The Fear of 13 never makes direct reference to the term triskaidekaphobia, the word that gives the film its name. In the documentary, Yarris uses this term to demonstrate the number of words he learned while in prison; the term resonated with him because he suffered a sexual assault as a child, during which his assailant justified his actions by claiming that Yarris appeared to be thirteen, an age at which the perpetrator believed one could be treated as an adult. While this incident is depicted in the play, the word Yarris's fictional stand-in chooses to showcase his literacy is instead incredulous. Additionally, though Yarris's love interest in the play is loosely based on Jackie Schaffer, Yarris's actual ex-wife, she is not intended to be a direct analogue of her.
Production history
London (2024) On June 25, 2024, Donmar Warehouse artistic director Tim Sheader announced his inaugural season of productions at the venue, which was slated to open with The Fear of 13, with Adrien Brody set to portray Nick Yarris. Justin Martin served as the show's director. On August 29, Nana Mensah's casting as Jackie Schaffer was announced alongside the remainder of the cast. The production began previews on October 4, formally opening on October 10 and closing on November 30, 2024. Performances were sold out throughout the duration of the run.
Broadway (2026) On January 13, 2026, production companies associated with The Fear of 13 announced that the show would transfer to Broadway at the James Earl Jones Theatre. Adrien Brody was set to reprise his role as Yarris, with Tessa Thompson cast as Jacki; the show marked both performers' Broadway debuts. Thompson has stated that her role in the 2025 film Hedda, an updated adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's play Hedda Gabler, inspired her to pursue more stage roles, as she had acted in regional and off-Broadway productions in the past. The show was produced in collaboration with the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization that advocates for freeing wrongfully incarcerated prisoners with the usage of DNA evidence. David Cromer was announced as the show's director, marking his second production of the 2025–2026 Broadway season, following a revival of the Tracy Letts play Bug. The show also marked Lindsey Ferrentino's second Broadway show of the season, as she had written the book for the musical The Queen of Versailles, which opened on Broadway in November 2025.
The show's additional cast members were announced on February 9. Notably, this group of actors included Ephraim Sykes, who performed songs by the Temptations in The Fear of 13 alongside the cast's ensemble, including "I Wish It Would Rain" and "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)". Sykes had previously originated the role of Temptations frontman David Ruffin in the Broadway jukebox musical Ain't Too Proud, for which he received a nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical at the 73rd Tony Awards.
Previews for the show opened on March 19, and the play formally opened on April 15, with an initial closing date of July 12. Two days before the show's opening night, media personality Kim Kardashian was announced as a co-producer of The Fear of 13, marking her Broadway producing debut. She cited her passion for criminal justice reform as her impetus for participating in the production. On May 14, the show hosted a benefit performance for the Innocence Project, which was accompanied by a talk-back session featuring Brody, Thompson, Ferrentino, attorney Christina Swarns (the executive director of the Innocence Project, who had served as one of the public defenders on the real Nick Yarris's case), and Innocence Project client Termaine Hicks. Actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Timothée Chalamet were all seen attending various showings of the play. The real Nick Yarris frequently appeared at performances throughout the show's Broadway run.
The show's Broadway transfer announcement came over ten months after Adrien Brody won his second Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film The Brutalist at the 97th Academy Awards. Brody took a deliberate break from accepting new roles after winning the Academy Award; his appearance in the Broadway transfer of The Fear of 13 marked his first performance after accepting the prize. Brody was initially apprehensive about starring in a Broadway production, citing his lack of experience acting onstage under such a rigorous schedule as a deterrent. However, he has stated that encouragement from his girlfriend, Georgina Chapman, as well as media executive Anna Wintour, motivated him to reprise the role. Brody lived alone in a Midtown hotel throughout the show's run, including during rehearsals, and only interacted with others during performances or press events. He reported struggling with the task of depicting a number of bleak circumstances across a single, sustained performance, and has said that this prolonged isolation allowed him to better access his emotions during the show.
The Broadway production of The Fear of 13 differed somewhat from its London inception. The number of male ensemble roles, which require performers to alternately play prison guards and inmates, was expanded. The set was more elaborate as well. Additionally, while Yarris's love interest was named "Jackie Schaffer", after Yarris's real ex-wife, in the London version of the play, the character's name is changed to "Jacki Miles" in the Broadway version, making more clear that the playwright has reimagined her; she is not closely based on the real person. The same is true of the lawyer character.