THE PELICOT TRIAL: book launch and special shows in Paris and New York
Le Procès Pelicot. Un Oratorio by Milo Rau and Servane Dècle will be released this Wednesday at Gisèle Pelicot’s publishing house Flammarion! Two special shows of Rau’s and Dècle’s eponymous „landmark in the art of theatre“ (Le Monde) celebrate the long-awaited book launch in Paris and New York.
On 5 March, the Théâtre de la Concorde in Paris hosts Rau’s and Dècle’s praised “oratorio”, which has been on a world tour for nine months. The show features a long list of French film and theatre stars, a.o. Valérie Dréville, Natalie Dessay, Guillaume Labbé, Fatima Ouassak, Océan and Laetitia Dosch – in presence of the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo.
Shortly afterwards, the US premiere takes place at the iconic Judson Memorial Church in New York. A.o. Ellen Barkin, V (formerly known as Eve Ensler), Joan Juliet Buck, Neal Kumar Katial (former United States Solicitor General), Laila Robins (Homeland) will perform live on stage!
If you don’t get a ticket for THE PELICOT TRIAL, no worries – check the Paris or New York live streams! And: More than 10 other Rau plays are currently touring the globe. Only this week, The Letter is performing in Sao Paulo, Medea’s Children is stopping off in Lausanne, The Seer is performed at Schaubühne Berlin and Rau’s collaboration with Elfriede Jelinek Burgtheater at the National Theatre in Vienna.
A special highlight is the debate What do we need culture for at the Swedish Royal Dramatic Theatre on 7 March. Milo Rau meets activist Roxy Farhat, who stormed the stage of Rau’s newest play RAGE – a grim, violent portrait of the end of liberal democracy.
Farhat’s action sparked a debate about the dialectics of art and activism. Something that Rau had already achieved in Germany a few days earlier: his live filmed TRIAL AGAINST GERMANY, streamed millions of times, led to a “renaissance of theatre as a space for debate” (Die Welt).
Farhat’s action sparked a debate about the dialectics of art and activism. Something that Rau had already achieved in Germany a few days earlier: his live filmed TRIAL AGAINST GERMANY, streamed millions of times, led to a “renaissance of theatre as a space for debate” (Die Welt).
But there’s even more madness in store! From Florentina Holzinger to Patti Smith, from Rébecca Chaillon to Narcissister, from Angélica Liddell to Romeo Castellucci: for its 75th anniversary, Milo Rau is transforming the Vienna Festival into a blasphemic and divine REPUBLIC OF GODS!
At the programme presentation for the 2026 edition of Europe’s largest crossover festival, Rau has announced also two projects of his own: the “bizarre and touching revue” The Best Play Ever and a mysterious Tribunal of Faith.
Don’t miss it when the Vienna Festival “opens a window to heaven”. It’s Time for New Gods!