The Pelicot Trial
London County Hall
- Opens: Monday, 30 November 2026 -
Booking until: Monday, 30 November 2026
The Pelicot Trial description
The Pelicot Trial brings the record of one of the most widely followed criminal cases of recent years to the stage, in a single performance lasting four hours.
The piece centres on the case of Gisèle Pelicot, in which 51 men were prosecuted over the repeated rape of a woman while she was unconscious, in the small town of Mazan in the south of France. Testimony and written accounts from the hearings, police files, psychiatric reports on the defendants and wider social commentary are set side by side. Together they show that the accused were ordinary men of every age and social class, and trace how Pelicot's decision to make her trial public, summed up in her words "Shame has to change sides", made her a symbol of resilience in the fight against sexual violence.
The production was developed with journalists, anthropologists and local feminist organisations in France, and received its world premiere at the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) | Free Republic of Vienna on 18 June 2025. It has since been staged in cities including Avignon, New York, Lisbon, Milan and Bergen, with a different company performing in each. The London staging is its UK premiere, presented by the Young Vic with Eleanor Lloyd Productions and Rebecca Stafford Productions in the Chamber at London County Hall, home of Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution. The performance will also be streamed live and free of charge on the Young Vic's YouTube channel.
Research, text and direction are by Milo Rau and Servane Dècle, with production dramaturgy by Nastasia Griese. Rau is a Swiss theatre-maker known for documentary and re-enactment works including Hate Radio and The Congo Tribunal.
The company numbers 30 artists and public figures. Those announced so far are Adjoa Andoh, Nicole Ansari-Cox, Lorraine Ashbourne, Leo Bill, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Alfred Enoch, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Rosie Jones, Kadiff Kirwan, Rosie O'Donnell, Tamzin Outhwaite, Jordan Stephens, Juliet Stevenson, Samuel West and Olivia Williams, with further casting to follow. Among them are Juliet Stevenson, an Olivier Award winner for Death and the Maiden, Adjoa Andoh, known to screen audiences from Bridgerton, and the American comedian and actor Rosie O'Donnell.
Book tickets for this single London performance, which returns to the Pelicot case in the words of those who were there.
