Rosie O'Donnell, Adjoa Andoh and Julie Hesmondhalgh Join Star-Studded Cast of Gisele Pelicot Trial Play in London

A one-off theatrical production dramatising the landmark trial of Dominique Pelicot is set to bring together an unusually large ensemble of prominent actors and public figures for a single performance in London next month. The Pelicot Trial, described by its producers as a work of "documentary theatre", will be staged at County Hall on 30 November by the Young Vic theatre, with organisers confirming that the performance will also be streamed online for audiences unable to attend in person.

Among the thirty performers announced for the production are US comedian Rosie O'Donnell, Celebrity Traitors contestant Julie Hesmondhalgh, Bridgerton star Adjoa Andoh and former EastEnders actress Tamzin Outhwaite. Their involvement signals the extent to which the case has resonated beyond France, drawing figures from television, film, comedy and music into a project that its creators frame as both an act of remembrance and a call for change.

The cast list extends well beyond those four names. Juliet Stevenson, best known for the film Truly, Madly, Deeply, will take part, alongside All Creatures Great and Small actor Samuel West. Oliva Wiliams, who appeared in The Sixth Sense, and Kadiff Kirwan, who has featured in Slow Horses, are also attached to the project. Comedian Rosie Jones, Dune actress Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Bridgerton's Lorraine Ashbourne and Rizzle Kicks rapper Jordan Stephens round out the initial group of confirmed participants.

Organisers have indicated that further casting will be revealed in the weeks leading up to the performance. The scale of the ensemble — roughly thirty actors and public figures sharing a single stage — reflects the breadth of the material the production draws upon, which has been assembled from court documents and psychiatric assessments relating to the dozens of men prosecuted in the case.

The trial itself centred on Dominique Pelicot, who was sentenced to twenty years in prison for drugging and raping his then wife, Gisele Pelicot, and for facilitating the rape of her by fifty other men while she was unconscious. The revelations that emerged during the proceedings in France provoked widespread outrage, both domestically and internationally, and transformed Gisele Pelicot into a globally recognised symbol of resilience in the face of sexual violence.

At the age of 73, Gisele Pelicot made the decision to waive her right to anonymity as a survivor of sexual abuse. She has consistently argued that shame should attach to her abusers rather than to her, a stance that legal commentators and advocacy groups have credited with shifting public discourse around how victims of sexual violence are perceived and treated.

The Young Vic has characterised the production as a "profoundly affecting piece of documentary theatre", noting that it is built from testimonies and written accounts generated by the trial. In its statement, the theatre said the work pays tribute to "the ordinary woman who opened the way to change" — a reference to Gisele Pelicot's decision to allow the proceedings to be held in public and to forgo the protection of anonymity.

Documentary theatre, which uses verbatim material such as transcripts, interviews and official records rather than invented dialogue, has a long tradition of bringing legal and political events to audiences in dramatised form. The Pelicot Trial follows that convention by constructing its narrative directly from the evidentiary record, including the psychiatric reports compiled on the men who faced prosecution.

The production was developed in collaboration with journalists and feminist organisations based in France, according to the Young Vic. That partnership suggests an intent to ground the drama in rigorous reporting and advocacy perspectives rather than treating the case purely as a courtroom spectacle. Representatives of the theatre have not disclosed how the four-hour running time will be structured, but the length indicates a comprehensive approach to the material rather than a condensed retelling.

The Pelicot Trial received its world premiere in Vienna last year and has since travelled to a series of cities, including Avignon — the location of the original trial — as well as New York, Lisbon, Milan and Bergen. Its arrival in London therefore represents the latest stop on an international tour that has positioned the case as a subject of transnational artistic engagement.

Tickets for the London performance are scheduled to go on general sale on Wednesday. Given the one-night-only format and the prominence of the names involved, demand is likely to be considerable, and the simultaneous online stream will extend access to viewers who cannot secure seats at County Hall.

The involvement of figures such as O'Donnell and Andoh also highlights the way high-profile performers can lend visibility to causes connected to gender-based violence. O'Donnell, a long-established presence in American comedy and television, and Andoh, whose profile has expanded significantly through her role in Bridgerton, bring audiences that might not otherwise encounter a verbatim theatre piece rooted in French legal proceedings.

For the Young Vic, the project continues an institutional interest in staging work that engages directly with contemporary social questions. By mounting the production at County Hall rather than in its own auditorium, the theatre places the performance in a civic setting, a choice that subtly reinforces the public dimension of a trial that Gisele Pelicot insisted should not be concealed behind closed doors.

The broader significance of the production lies in its timing. The case has already prompted debates in France and elsewhere about consent, marital rape and the inadequacies of legal systems in addressing serial sexual abuse. A theatrical retelling, assembled from the words of those involved, offers audiences a different mode of encounter with that material — one that unfolds in real time and in the presence of other people, rather than through the mediated fragments of news coverage.

Whether the London performance will influence those debates further remains to be seen. What is clear is that a case which began in a courtroom in Avignon has now acquired a cultural afterlife, carried by a touring production and by a cast willing to give their time to a single evening's performance in the capital.