Play on Gisele Pelicot Rape Trial to be Staged in London

A documentary theatre piece based on the Gisele Pelicot rape trial is set to be performed in London. The production, titled "The Pelicot Trial," will be staged by the Young Vic Theatre at London County Hall on November 30.

Swiss director and playwright Milo Rau created the performance. It began as a stand-alone piece at the Festival d'Avignon, in the French town where the alleged crimes took place, and has since traveled to various European cities, with typically one performance per location.

Rau described the work as an effort "to disentangle the story from the couple Gisèle and Dominique Pelicot – turning it into a story that belongs to us all and at the same time to none of us."

The Young Vic Theatre stated that the performance is a "profoundly affecting piece of documentary theatre, comprised of testimonies and written accounts from the trial." The theatre added that the production "pays tribute to the ordinary woman who opened the way to change."

The Pelicot trial, which involved 50 men found guilty of rape or sexual offenses, was described as "the most publicised, discussed, and symbolic of our time." According to the theatre's description, the trial serves as a sociological study demonstrating that "in a typical Western European city – the small town of Mazan in the south of France – perfectly ordinary men from all social classes and age groups are capable of perhaps the most extreme crime: the repeated rape of an unconscious woman."

Thirty actors will participate in the London production, which draws on trial documents. Nadia Fall, artistic director and chief executive of the Young Vic Theatre, noted that Rau's "extraordinary testimonial piece" is being presented at County Hall, calling it "a piece of confronting event-theatre which bears witness to the harrowing story of Gisèle Pelicot."