Content warning: This event and its description below contain graphic descriptions of sexual violence.
“Shame must change sides.” With these words, as well as with her decision to make her trial public, Gisèle Pelicot has become a symbol in the fight to end violence against women. The rape case examines and reveals how, in this small town in southern France, ordinary men of all ages and social backgrounds are capable of committing an inhumane crime: the repeated rape of an unconscious woman.
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center/the Graduate Center CUNY in collaboration with the Judson Memorial Church, Skirball NYU, and Festival d’Avignon presents in New York City a special performance of the the Vienna Festwochen production The Pelicot Trial: Tribute to Gisèle Pelicot—directed by renowned Swiss director Milo Rau and Servane Dècle. Supported by the Consulate General of Switzerland in New York.
This unique presentation features readings of the trial proceeding in the newly translated American adaptation of the sensational The Pelicot Trial, presented by the Avignon Festival in 2025—regarded by many as the highlight of the festival.
Milo Rau and Servane Dècle’s extraordinary “Theatre of the Real” documentary play examines the Gisèle Pelicot case in a four-hour afternoon performance with readings of documents retracing and examining this groundbreaking historic trial—a watershed event that deeply entered the psyche of the French nation. The New York version of The Pelicot Trial: Tribute to Gisèle Pelicot will take place at the historic performance art venue Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village in New York City. Judson Church still serves also as a diverse, vibrant place of worship with it’s own congregation—creating a spiritual community through the pursuit of justice actions, talks, family events, sermons, social justice actions, creative expression, and contemplation.
Click here for world tour of The Pelicot Trial—Tribute to Gisèle Pelicot in Milan, Italy; Bergen and Oslo, Norway; Belgrade, Serbia; Stockholm, Sweden; Warsaw, Poland; Lisbon, Portugal; Avignon, France; and Vienna, Austria.
With Nicole Ansari, and others.
Research, dramaturgy and direction by Milo Rau and Servane Dècle.
Production dramaturgy by Nastasia Griese.
Audiences are free to take breaks at their own discretion.
New York Casting: Nicole Ansari
Judson Church: Maggie Goldner
Consulate General of Switzerland: Elena Bänninger
NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts: Jay Wegman
Vienna Festwochen: Monika Huber
Segal Theatre Center: Frank Hentschker
Supported by the Consulate General of Switzerland in New York.
