Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
The Pelicot trial is undoubtedly the most publicised and discussed, and also the most symbolic, of our time. As in a sociological study, it shows that in a perfectly normal Western European city – the small town of Mazan in the south of France, close to Avignon – 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. “Shame must change sides”: Gisèle Pelicot’s decision to make her trial public made her the symbolic figure of a possible turning point. THE PELICOT TRIAL pays tribute to an ordinary woman who became an icon of resistance against the sexual and sexist violences commited by men.
Research, dramaturgy and direction Milo Rau and Servane Dècle
Production dramaturgy Nastasia Griese
Video edit: Jana Püscher
Excerpts from the performance in Vienna
The Pelicot trial is undoubtedly the most publicised and discussed, and also the most symbolic, of our time. As in a sociological study, it shows that in a perfectly normal Western European city – the small town of Mazan in the south of France, close to Avignon – 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. “Shame must change sides”: Gisèle Pelicot’s decision to make her trial public made her the symbolic figure of a possible turning point. THE PELICOT TRIAL pays tribute to an ordinary woman who became an icon of resistance against the sexual and sexist violences commited by men.
Research, dramaturgy and direction Milo Rau and Servane Dècle
Production dramaturgy Nastasia Griese
Video edit: Jana Püscher
Excerpts from the performance in Vienna
