GEOFF BENNETT: In 2004, Nick Yarris walked out of a Pennsylvania prison after 22 years on death row following a wrongful conviction for rape and murder.

His was the first death row case in Pennsylvania, one of the earlier ones in the country overturned by DNA evidence.

His story is now the focus of a new play on Broadway titled "The Fear of 13" starring two leading film actors making their Broadway debuts.

Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown spoke with them at the Broadway restaurant Sardi's for our Art in Action series at the intersection of arts and democracy, part of our Canvas cover.

ADRIEN BRODY, Actor: I got two things to tell you.

One, I did not kill Mrs.

Craig.

I had nothing to do with that.

JEFFREY BROWN: In "The Fear of 13," Adrien Brody plays Nick Yarris, a prisoner finding ways to survive in a system that considers him a dead man.

Telling the story of his life to Jackie, a death row volunteer, with whom he eventually develops a deep personal relationship, played by Tessa Thompson.

For the two actors, the urgency of the subject was irresistible.

TESSA THOMPSON, Actress: What?

ADRIEN BRODY: If DNA is getting people convicted, why can't it get people released?

TESSA THOMPSON: I'm sure DNA could.

ADRIEN BRODY: Nick represents both grave injustice and the ability of the human spirit to soar above incredible hardship and oppression.

JEFFREY BROWN: And that combination clearly grabbed you.

ADRIEN BRODY: And that, of course, speaks to me and speaks to what art can achieve and what we must aspire to find in ourselves and others and hope must prevail.

TESSA THOMPSON: I just thought it was such a fantastic thing to offer audiences, because, unfortunately, our system is really built that when people are put behind bars they're forgotten.

It's inherent in the system.

The piece sort of jumped off the page, not unlike Nick Yarris himself, who's sort of the subject.

He is a remarkable storyteller and he has so many incredible stories to tell.

JEFFREY BROWN: In fact, Yarris has told his story in a memoir and documentary by David Sington.

NICK YARRIS, Exonerated: There's a cop right there.

Then we heard the pop.

JEFFREY BROWN: Of a life of petty crime and drug addiction in his youth, a more serious charge for which he was acquitted of attempted murder of a police officer, and then while attempting to curry favor with authorities, his false claim of knowing the perpetrator of an unsolved rape and murder.

Instead, he himself was charged, tried and convicted in 1982 at age 21, sentenced to death.

His exoneration came 22 long years later after delay upon delay.

Playwright Lindsey Ferrentino adapted the material for the theater, first staged in London and now on Broadway.

It's a Broadway debut, right?

ADRIEN BRODY: It's -- yes, it's my debut.

(LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: You finally made it.

(LAUGHTER) ADRIEN BRODY: Yes, that's cute.

I -- in a way, yes.

My buildings were devised to endure such erosion of the shoreline.

JEFFREY BROWN: Brody, of course, has made it big time, winning two best actor Oscars, most recently in 2024 for "The Brutalist."

He appeared on stage early in his career, but not for more than 30 years.

ADRIEN BRODY: Part of what's kept me from doing is I have spent a lifetime learning and sculpting techniques to do my work on film.

And I don't have that arsenal for theater.

It's much more about intuition and a leap.

And it's very exciting, because it's affording me new insights into my own work, into obstacles within bridging certain things in my work and made me stronger.

ACTOR: Hedda?

TESSA THOMPSON: Yes?

JEFFREY BROWN: Tessa Thompson is also an acclaimed film actor with a Golden Globe nomination for last year's "Hedda."

And this is her first time on a stage in more than 10 years, drawn by Broadway, the chance to work with Brody, and also to address such a compelling and important contemporary subject.

TESSA THOMPSON: Trying to create sort of literacy and that people have an understand.

I mean, even every night, I listen to the piece.

And at this point, I know the piece very, very well.

And still I am struck by some of the things inside of Nick's case, and not just complexities, but, like, frustrations of the way that our system works, frankly.

ADRIEN BRODY: And bureaucracy.

TESSA THOMPSON: Yes, and whole lives are taken away.

And the time spent waiting for justice to be served is really unbelievable.

For me, it's like that's something that, whether we succeed or fail, that's the kind of thing that I want to try at every night, taking a swing like that every night.

ADRIEN BRODY: I have never been in love before, but I know what this is.

It was never really going to be worth saying out loud, but now... TESSA THOMPSON: Nick, we need to prove your innocence.

If we can do that, then... ADRIEN BRODY: Yo, you just said we.

JEFFREY BROWN: Something that struck me, it's not a story of redemption.

I mean, it's just sort of mistakes.

It's like mistakes that Nick made in his life and then the system makes horrific mistakes, right?

ADRIEN BRODY: There is nothing that gives back the time that's been robbed.

And I think that is a big part of the storytelling from the beginning.

And in spite of all of that, the ability to find joy in being present and having made it out and having rediscovered all the things that are joyous that are often taken for granted, to not be -- to have our soul annihilated systematically or through physical or emotional abuse.

I mean, that was a huge gift.

TESSA THOMPSON: And, unfortunately, because the way that our system is built is you can sort of step away unless you have someone who's behind bars.

It's easy to forget.

And I think doing this work now and it's our way of validating someone across from us, which is to say that your story is worth listening to.

JEFFREY BROWN: As for Nick Yarris himself, since his exoneration and release, he has demanded that DNA samples be used to find the real perpetrator at the center of his case, won a lawsuit over his own prosecution, and joined efforts to exonerate other wrongly convicted people.

And now Brody and Thompson told us he comes to the theater and sits most nights in the same seat in the balcony, where they can see his silhouette, a reminder to them of why they're telling this story.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Jeffrey Brown on Broadway.