We turned the theatre into a courtroom': Pelicot trial dramatised at Avignon festival

A stage play based on the trial of the men who drugged and raped Gisèle Pelicot will be staged tonight in the southern city of Avignon, as France continues to debate the lessons for society from the country's biggest ever rape trial.

- Angelique Chrisafis

The three-hour performance, The Pelicot Trial: Tribute to Gisèle Pelicot, has been created by Milo Rau, a Swiss director and playwright acclaimed for his theatre interpretations of court proceedings including the Moscow trial of the Russian punks Pussy Riot, and the trial of the Romanian despot Nicolae Ceaușescu.

The play has the backing of Pelicot's lawyers and feminist groups, and Rau said he felt compelled to turn the trial into theatre. He said the Pelicot play was about looking at rape culture, the trivialisation of rape, and patriarchy in all its forms. "Through the Pelicot trial, it's ourselves and our society on trial," he said.

Pelicot was hailed worldwide after she waived her right to anonymity to ensure a public trial of her ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, who drugged her unconscious and invited dozens of men on an internet forum to come to her bedroom and rape her for almost a decade from 2011 in the southern village of Mazan. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in December and guilty verdicts were returned for all the 51 accused men.

Gisèle Pelicot, who had said in court she wanted "all of society to be a witness" and "shame must change sides", was this week given France's top civic honour, the Légion d'Honneur, in recognition of her determination to expose and change what she called a "macho, patriarchal society that trivialises rape".