Gisèle Pelicot’s traumatic ordeal of sexual assault, which resulted in the conviction of her ex-husband and 51 other men, has been translated into an emotive theatre play by Swiss playwright and director Milo Rau, reports The Guardian.
The play delves deeper into the roots of rape culture within society and raises questions about how such institutionalized abuse could go on without detection for almost a decade.
Pelicot decided boldly to forgo her anonymity in seeking a public trial. Explaining her decision, she stated that she wanted ‘all of society to be a witness’ and insisted that ‘shame must change sides’.
Dominique Pelicot, Gisèle’s former husband, masterminded years of abuse by getting her drunk and inviting men from a cyber forum to rape her. How far his crimes went was only revealed when he was arrested for taking inappropriate photos up women’s skirts. In a police raid on his laptop, police found records of serial assaults on Gisèle by multiple men.
The play, in Rau’s description, is not merely one survivor’s experience but a condemnation of the systems that enabled such depravity to continue. “We see really what culture they’re coming from, the patriarchal system, fraternity and rape culture that produces this,” Rau said to The Guardian.
Rau also added that the film is released at the right moment in contemporary consciousness. “There was a moment of increased awareness in this city, but also in this country and in civilisation as a whole, to get it about human relationships and how they’ve evolved under a regime of capitalism, a regime of internet pornography, patriarchy, and drug-induced abuse.”
Co-author Servane Dècle underscored the need to engage with the social forces that conditioned the behaviour of the perpetrators. “It’s about tugging on all the threads with the audience to try and figure out what is it that brought these men who were so vastly different from each other – to that bedroom, exchange recipes for drugging women, propose women they know who should be raped as well, and doing it all while leading seemingly normal lives. It’s incredibly significant what this reveals about our society today.”
In appreciation of her courage and dedication to justice, Gisèle Pelicot was recently honored with France’s esteemed Legion d’Honneur.
