preview preview
  • DE |
  • EN

    •   Today, Milo Rau’s LETTER TO MY FRIENDS is being published in 13 European languages. On the occasion of the Italien premiere of Rau’s new play THE LETTER, the Artistic Director of the Vienna Festival calls on the directors of art institutions to actively oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza.   LETTER TO MY FREINDS   […]


    preview

    LETTER TO MY FRIENDS: Milo Rau on the Genocide in Gaza

     

    Today, Milo Rau’s LETTER TO MY FRIENDS is being published in 13 European languages. On the occasion of the Italien premiere of Rau’s new play THE LETTER, the Artistic Director of the Vienna Festival calls on the directors of art institutions to actively oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza.

     

    LETTER TO MY FREINDS

     

    “We have no right to remain silent.” From France to Belgium, from Italy to Romania, from Portugal to the Czech Republic, from Poland to Croatia: Milo Rau’s appeal to Europe’s cultural institutions to take a united stand against the genocide in Gaza is published simultaneously in 13 languages.

     

    With one interesting exception: “Despite all our efforts, we couldn’t find a single German-language newspaper, magazine, or platform that was willing to publish the letter. While this was not a problem in any other European country,” as Rau says in an interview, adressing the “disturbing silence of the Holocaust perpetrator nations” (English version).

     

    The LETTER TO MY FRIENDS is being published at the start of the world tour of Rau’s eponymous play THE LETTER in Rome. Also starting its world tour is the “landmark in the art of theatre” (Le Monde) THE PELICOT TRIAL. Lisbon, Warsaw, Belgrade, Stockholm, Paris, New York – and many other cities are on the program.

     

    With the LETTER TO MY FRIENDS, Vienna Festival’s RESISTANCE NOW TOGETHER! tour  enters its second season. The campaign, which has reached 100 million people in 20 countries to date, recently caused a stir worldwide due to a court case.

     

    The campaign book RESISTANCE HAS NO FORM, RESISTANCE IS THE FORM had to be withdrawn from sale – after the publisher lost a lawsuit against right-wing politician H. C. Strache, Austria’s former Vice Chancellor.

     

    “What we are seeing is far-right parties using the arsenal provided by democracy in order to destroy it,” THE GUARDIAN and EL PAÍS quote Milo Rau. Also included in the book: Rau’s play THE SEER, which celebrated its German premiere last week at the Schaubühne Berlin, featuring Silver Lion winner Ursina Lardi.

     

    “The performing arts are rightly accused of finding few answers to our war-torn times. Milo Rau’s theater is a disturbing exception,” a critic jugded. Judge for yourself: We look forward to all the upcoming debates, performances, and campaign stops all over Europe and the world — together with you!

     

    RESISTANCE NOW TOGETHER!


      Former Vice-Chancellor H.C. Strache – world-famous for his role in the Ibiza affair that brought down Austria’s right-wing government – took legal action against a Milo Rau speech documented in his latest book RESISTANCE HAS NO FORM, RESISTANCE IS THE FORM. The book, in which Rau examines the links between right-wing politics and the […]


    preview

    STRACHE VS. RAU: Milo Rau Book Banned

     

    Former Vice-Chancellor H.C. Strache – world-famous for his role in the Ibiza affair that brought down Austria’s right-wing government – took legal action against a Milo Rau speech documented in his latest book RESISTANCE HAS NO FORM, RESISTANCE IS THE FORM.


    The book, in which Rau examines the links between right-wing politics and the restriction of artistic freedom in Europe, had to be withdrawn from sale. Tomorrow, Friday, the verdict of the STRACHE VS. RAU TRIAL will be announced at a press conference at Schaubühne Berlin.

     

    RESISTANCE NOW!

     

    Tomorrow, Friday, the Schaubühne Berlin will host the German premiere of Milo Rau’s THE SEER, a co-production with the Vienna Festival and the Venice Biennale. The play – starring Silver Lion Winner Ursina Lardi and Iraqi civil rights activist Azad Hassan – is part of Rau’s book RESISTANCE HAS NO FORM, RESISTANCE IS THE FORM that had to be withdrawn from sale last week.

     

    Former FPÖ politician H. C. Strache – who became world-famous for his role in the Ibiza affair that brought down the Austria’s right-wing government – took legal action against Rau’s book that collects the speeches from Rau’s 100 Million Reader Campaign RESISTANCE NOW!, uniting more than 200 cultural institutions in the EU.

     

    With this campaign, the Artistic Director of the Vienna Festival is calling for a European law to protect artistic freedom against politically motivated attacks. Rau: “Legal attacks are only the beginning. We will continue to respond to pressure with civil society resistance.” Or as Rau wrote in his forbidden speech: “This is a battle that we will win in the end.”

     

    Today, Thursday, the verdict in the STRACHE VS. RAU TRIAL has been handed down by the Vienna Court. Milo Rau is inviting to a press conference tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the Schaubühne in Berlin, where he will announce and explain the verdict and discuss the next steps of the RESISTANCE NOW! campaign.

     

    RESISTANCE NOW!
    PRESS CONFERENCE

    19 September 2025, 7 p.m.

    Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz
    Kurfürstendamm 153, Berlin

    Together with: Milo Rau, DIE VIELEN, Verbrecher Verlag, Ursina Lardi & Azad Hassan (THE SEER), Michael Mai (Artistic Freedom Initiative), Bettina Hesse (media policy advisor ver.di)  

     

    RESISTANCE NOW!

     


      The first presentation of THE PELICOT TRIAL at the Vienna Festival on June 18 hit like a bomb. Now, on July 18, LE PROCÈS PELICOT by Servane Dècle and Milo Rau – condensed into four intensive hours, starring 50 actors and activists – will take place at the Festival d’Avignon, only a few kilometres […]


    preview

    „Seven hours of real horror“: Milo Rau brings THE PELICOT TRIAL to the Festival d’Avignon

     

    The first presentation of THE PELICOT TRIAL at the Vienna Festival on June 18 hit like a bomb. Now, on July 18, LE PROCÈS PELICOT by Servane Dècle and Milo Rau – condensed into four intensive hours, starring 50 actors and activists – will take place at the Festival d’Avignon, only a few kilometres away from the small town of Mazan, where the crimes that shocked the world took place.

     

    THE PELICOT TRIAL

     

    The Vienna Festival – Europe’s biggest crossover-festival, curated by Milo Rau – came to an end two weeks ago. From Elfriede Jelinek to Laurie Anderson and from Carolina Bianchi to Lia Rodrigues, everyone came to Vienna for this year’s edition, the REPUBLIC OF LOVE, proclaimed in front of 48,000 people in the city center on May 16.

     

    112,000 spectators attended the more than 100 shows during the five-week festival, around a million watched online. The Swiss national tv channel RTS summed it up: “The Vienna Festival is the Holy Grail of contemporary theater and the place for all polemics.”

     

    Milo Rau himself staged four theatre productions during the festival: the mythical BURGTHEATERby Nobel Prize Winner Elfriede Jelinek, banned for 40 years – the “cruel and insanely entertaining” (Profil) production was, with more than 200 media reports, the most talked-about show of the theater season in the German-speaking world.

     

    Just a few days later, together with Schaubühne Berlin, the Venice Biennale and with Ursina Lardi in the main role (Silver Lion Winner 2025), Rau premiered his semi-autobiographical performance THE SEER: „Shocking and disturbing“ (FAZ). After shows in Austria, Italy and Romania, the German premiere will take place on September 19 in Berlin.

     

    LARDI SILVER LION SPEECH

     

    The CONGRESSES OF VIENNA on the cases of the band Rammstein, cancel culture and #MeToo sparked weeks of debate. But THE PELICOT TRIAL – staged for the first time in Vienna on 18 June – certainly had the greatest impact. Critics were fascinated by the seven-hour oratorio about an ordinary woman who became an icon of resistance against sexual violence.

     

    El País witnessed “a political act of memory”, France Info saw “the Austrian public in shock,” and Die Welt called the collaboration between dramaturge Servane Dècle and Rau “the most disturbing thing theater can show”: “Is it now up to art rather than religion to keep the hope of the Last Judgment alive?”

     

    On 18 July, the reading – condensed into four intensive hours – will take place at the Festival d’Avignon, in collaboration with the Pelicot family’s lawyers, psychological experts, legal commentators, witnesses, and feminist organisations: “Milo Rau revisits the systemic failures exposed by Pelicot’s historic trial and the social shift she sparked.” (Le Monde)

     

    LE PROCÈS PELICOT

     

    And yet another play by Milo Rau will premiere already tomorrow, 8 July, at the Festival d’Avignon: THE LETTER (LA LETTRE), which features Olga Mouak and Arne De Tremerie – alongside the voices of Isabelle Huppert and Anne Alvaro, and an artificial intelligence!

     

    „Lighthearted and full of humour, seeking to create theatre by creating a community, LA LETTRE is a manifesto on what popular theatre can be today,“ as the festival announces. Don’t miss this combination of Chekhov’s The Seagull and the French national myth of Joan of Arc!

     

    THE LETTER

     

     


      On 16 May 2025, Milo Rau declared the REPUBLIC OF LOVE – Rau’s second edition of the Vienna Festival – in front of 48,000 people. As part of Europe’s largest crossover festival, over 100 theater plays, concerts, and events have taken place so far, including new works by Laurie Anderson, Tiago Rodrigues, or Carolina […]


    preview

    From Rammstein to Pelicot: Milo Rau stages the big trials of our time

     

    On 16 May 2025, Milo Rau declared the REPUBLIC OF LOVE – Rau’s second edition of the Vienna Festival – in front of 48,000 people. As part of Europe’s largest crossover festival, over 100 theater plays, concerts, and events have taken place so far, including new works by Laurie Anderson, Tiago Rodrigues, or Carolina Bianchi.

     

    Among them were two productions staged by Rau himself: the mythical BURGTHEATER by Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek, banned for 40 years, and Rau’s and Ursina Lardi’s (Silver Lion Winner 2025) THE SEER, which celebrated its Italian premiere yesterday at the Venice Biennale.

     

    For the second half of the Vienna Festival, Rau stages THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA – real-time trials on Art and Abuse, starting today Friday – as well as the all-night reading THE PELICOT TRIAL.

     

    Artistic freedom versus victim protection, the cult of genius versus criticism of power: THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA (13 – 15 June) examines the treatment of art that has been discredited or is suspected of having been created in violent and abusive contexts – including the case of the German band Rammstein.

     

    The entire Congress of Vienna II will be streamed live in German and English on derstandard.at.

     

    CONGRESS OF VIENNA

     

    THE PELICOT TRIAL (18 June) is undoubtedly the most publicised and discussed, and perhaps also the most symbolic, trial of our time. Almost like a sociological study, it shows that perfectly ordinary men are capable of one of the most extreme crimes of all: the repeated rape of an unconscious woman.

     

    With a staged reading of statements and examinations from the trial, interviews and newspaper commentaries, pleas, expert opinions and online chats, the night-long reading THE PELICOT TRIAL pays tribute to Gisèle Pelicot.

     

    In collaboration with the Pelicot family’s lawyers, the court, psychological experts, court reporters, witnesses and feminist groups, dramaturge Servane Dècle and director Milo Rau paint a picture of an entire era.

     

    The reading – produced in collaboration with the Avignon Festival – will be streamed live on festwochen.at.

     

    THE PELICOT TRIAL