The Pelicot Trial

When Gisèle Pelicot decided to open the doors to the trial against the 50 men who had raped her, she insisted that the world should watch. She refused to bear the shame and shifted it to where it belongs: onto the perpetrators.

THE PELICOT TRIAL brings witness testimony and cross-examinations directly to the main stage of the Betty Nansen Theatre as we recreate the shocking trial from the small southern French town of Mazan. Over 30 Danish actors and public figures appear in the production, which will be performed for one night only as the opening performance of the theater’s first season under its new artistic directors.

This is the true story of a woman who, for more than ten years, was drugged and raped in her own home – by the man she lived with and all the men he invited inside.

The production was created by the Swiss star director and playwright Milo Rau, one of Europe’s most prominent voices in documentary theatre. Together with the French playwright Servane Dècle – and with the permission of Gisèle Pelicot – he insists on getting up close not only to the crimes, but to the structures and communities that made them possible.

For what does it mean to be a witness? And what do we do with what we see?

The Pelicot Trial is a project of the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) | Free Republic of Vienna in collaboration with the Festival d’Avignon.

The world premiere took place on June 18, 2025, as part of the Vienna Festival | Free Republic of Vienna.