Prep School: The Pelicot Trial

With the Pelicot case, [Milo Rau] knew that it was too soon to turn the case into a fully staged play. “There’s a rule that normally you need 25 years of distance, one generation, for the symbolic value of the case to become clearer.”

The playwright, Ms. Dècle, told French radio that the work was taking up the demand by Ms. Pelicot, who had waived her right to a closed-door trial.

Gisèle wondered whether, by keeping the trial closed, she was protecting the defendants, whose behavior would never be fully known.

“When I wrote this book, I wanted it to be useful. It also allowed me to look inward, to take stock of my life and try to rebuild from the ruins.”

“I wanted the shame to shift to the other side…Shame must be carried by the accused, not the victims.”

After months of keeping hermetically silent, refusing hundreds of interview requests and retreating to a small island on France’s west coast to heal, Ms. Pelicot is now speaking out in a spectacular way.

“He was loved by everyone. That’s what is so terrifying.”

How do you find the strength to face the unimaginable?