Thirteen Days

A world premiere adaptation of Thirteen Days by Robert F. Kennedy, memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis. On Oct. 16, 1962, long-range Soviet missiles carrying nuclear warheads aimed at the U.S. were discovered in Cuba. For the next 13 days, President John Kennedy maneuvered through conflicting counsel from his advisers, some of whom urged a military response likely to bring on World War III, ambiguous and sometimes deceitful info from the Soviet Union’s representatives, and ever-shifting facts on the ground. City Lit has received permission from the Kennedy family to insert as dialogue into our script excerpts from recently-made-public transcripts of JFK’s strategy sessions during the climax of the Cold War, the 13 days the world came its closest to nuclear war. As with City Lit’s acclaimed production of Archibald MacLeish’s J.B., the roles in Thirteen Days will be played by a diverse ensemble of women. All the characters in the book are white males; none of the actors onstage will be.