Kate Winslet and Brian Cox Join Full Cast for Pelicot Trial UK Premiere
Kate Winslet, Brian Cox and 28 other artists and public figures will take part in a one-off UK premiere of The Pelicot Trial at London County Hall on 30 November. WhatsOnStage published the full cast list on 4 November.
The newly announced names are Winslet, Indira Varma, Cox, Lindsay Duncan, Misan Harriman, Suzy Eddie Izzard, Lennie James, Helena Kennedy, George MacKay, Tobias Menzies, Ambika Mod, John Simm, Ellie Wilson, Harriet Wistrich and countertenor Hugh Cutting. They join a group already listed for the production, including Adjoa Andoh, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Alfred Enoch, Juliet Stevenson, Samuel West and Olivia Williams.
The show is a piece of documentary theatre, meaning a play built from real records rather than invented scenes. It is by Milo Rau and Servane Decle. It draws on documents from the trial of the men who drugged and raped Gisèle Pelicot, and on psychiatric reports on the 51 men who were prosecuted.
The production is presented by the Young Vic, Eleanor Lloyd Productions and Rebecca Stafford Productions. It is supported by the Olwyn Foundation for Women and Girls, a funder focused on women and girls.
Seats are gone. The Guardian reported on 1 November that the production is sold out.
Those who cannot get to London can watch for free. The premiere will be livestreamed worldwide on the Young Vic's YouTube channel from 6pm to 10pm GMT on 30 November, according to the Young Vic.
The London performance is the latest stop for a production that has already travelled. It had its world premiere at the Vienna Festival. It then toured to Avignon, New York, Lisbon, Milan and Bergen, with a different company performing in each city.
The subject is serious. The play deals with the sexual abuse of a woman over many years, and its records came from a court case. The UK performance is being staged as a single evening, with the cast reading and performing the material in front of a live audience and a global online one.
