Avignon staging of Pelicot trial brings theater of the real to a new height

LeMonde

6 days ago

Four hours of breathless intensity. Rarely have we witnessed such focus, such unity between actors and audience, such a sense of urgency in a theater. Bringing the landmark Pelicot rape trial to the stage requires meeting the gravity of a historic legal moment. That was certainly the case on Friday, July 18, in Avignon, during this one-off performance presented by Swiss director Milo Rau. His show, Le Procès Pelicot ("The Pelicot Trial"), will remain in the annals as a model for what theater of the real can be.
How could four months of courtroom proceedings that deeply shook French society and reverberated far beyond its borders be condensed into four hours on stage? How could all traces of spectacle or sensationalism be avoided? Rau and his dramaturge, Servane Dècle, answered these questions with unwavering rigor and absolute faith in the power of theater, an art form intrinsically tied to justice since its Greek origins.
Just a stone's throw from the Avignon courthouse where the trial was held, the Cloître des Carmes, a major venue of the festival, served as the perfect setting to replay the trial's pivotal moments and to reflect on the unfathomable events that unfolded over more than a decade in a quiet village in southern France. No set was needed; everything unfolded through spoken word. On a bare stage, two rows of wooden benches positioned at stage left and right, as in a courtroom, held the actors dressed in dark colors. At center stage, a small table behind which two actresses stood, serving as both narrators and as the presiding judge and vice president of the court.