Review Roundup: THE FEAR OF 13 at Donmar Warehouse

The Donmar Warehouse is presenting the world premiere of Lindsey Ferrentino’s The Fear of 13 – the inaugural production in Tim Sheader’s first season as Artistic Director of The Donmar Warehouse. Nana Mensah will star opposite Adrien Brody, and they are joined by Michael Fox, Aidan Kelly, Posi Morakinyo, Cyril Nri, Ferdy Roberts and Tommy Sim’aan.
 
Justin Martin’s production runs until 30 November.
 
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 22 years on Death Row. About how he finally petitioned the court to ask not for an appeal, but for his execution date. And about what happened next…
 
Based on the extraordinary true story of Nick Yarris, Academy Award winner Adrien Brody makes his London theatre debut in the world premiere of The Fear of 13; a new play by Lindsey Ferrentino (Ugly Lies the Bone) directed by Justin Martin (Prima Facie).

See what the critics are saying...

Alexander Cohen, BroadwayWorld: A lesson in all this: No matter how fascinating the story, not everything deserves theatrical treatment. The Fear of 13 is about the importance of storytelling, but telling a good story is more important, and in the right form. Not everything deserves an on-stage treatment.

Arifa Akbar, The Guardian: He is a beguiling presence here but is not given enough space to flex his actorly muscles. Action takes the place of atmosphere. First-person narration, mostly by Yarris, obstructs the buildup of intensity. Nana Mensah, as prison volunteer turned wife, Jackie, narrates her story too but this limited interiority feels functional for delivering the next part of the story.

Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out: It’s not Hamlet, it’s not an Olivier-attempt showcase for Brody’s range. But neither is it sitting down to swallow your preachy medicine. It’s a beautifully theatrical production and a charismatic turn from Brody who portrays Yarris as both utterly charming and at least plausibly dangerous. His performance is charged with an impulsive recklessness and blindness to consequences that suggests how he got into such a disastrous mess. It is, above all, a cracking piece of storytelling, that exists because Yarris is a fascinating man who has lived a remarkable life, and because Brody has the tortured oddball charisma to bring that to the stage.

Nick Curtis, London Evening Standard: Overall, this is an enjoyably splashy, starry start to Tim Sheader’s reign at the Donmar. But the fact you never really know what’s going to happen is not always a positive. Brody is magnetic and engaging, but much of what unfolds seems daft or fantastical.

Alice Saville, The Independent: Ferrentino’s narrative effectively shows a wrongfully accused man trapped by a corrupt legal system primed to find the accused guilty, without really gesturing to the wider cruelties at work here – or letting moral ambiguity creep in. Instead, the profound bleakness underlying this story is constantly kept at bay with jokes, soul singing, and the bustling of guards and prisoners coming and going on its busy stage. It’s engrossing and poignant, even if it’s afraid to let the dark in.

Claire Allfree, The Telegraph: Yet in a performance that begins small but grows with disarming stealth, Brody makes the character his own. Where the source material prompted viewers to at times question the possible fantastical aspects of Yarris’s version of his own experience, Brody anchors it in absolute doe-eyed sincerity.