Barristers and the Bard at the Biltmore

What’s in a name? Plenty, if the program is called, “Let’s Kill All the Lawyers.”

Relax. It’s not meant to be taken literally. The 45-minute live production, staged by the Shakespeare Festival/LA and sponsored by the Biltmore Hotel (where it can be seen for free in the Grand Avenue Bar on Tuesday nights through Dec. 8), involves scenes about the law taken from four Shakespeare plays. The title is a quote from Act IV of “King Henry VI.”

Tuesday night, the performance was preceded by a cocktail reception, where the legal theme was carried out with a gavel-shaped sculpture and little gavel chocolates, for the seventh annual Shakespeare Circle Salute. Donors of more than $1,000 were honored, including Citibank, Pacific Telesis, the Michael J. Connell Foundation and Festival board treasurer Frank Sherwood.

While many arts organization are struggling, acknowledged Jim Wood, chairman of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, Shakespeare Festival/LA continues to thrive because the productions, all free, “show a spark--they update Shakespeare while maintaining the dialogue and putting a clever twist to it.”

As for the current production, board chairman Alma Fitch said that when it was staged two years ago at the L.A. Superior Court, “All the lawyers loved it.” This time around, a mass mailing was sent to members of the Los Angeles County Bar Assn.

“This wasn’t pulled out of whole cloth,” said Scott Meeham a festival board member who also happens to be a trial lawyer.

“There’s a strong connection between Shakespeare, his life, his works and the practice of law,” he said, adding: “And you can’t stress enough how much a courtroom setting is like a stage for attorneys.”

“I invited five lawyers tonight,” said board member Jim Morris, a developer. Why? “So many lawyers are so uptight. It gives a chance to look at themselves as Shakespeare saw them. It gives them a chance to laugh back at themselves.”

Well, maybe not all attorneys want to laugh. Mayor Tom Bradley--a lawyer--stayed for cocktails, but slipped out before the show.

“Everybody’s intrigued,” said Ben Donenberg, artistic director of the festival.

“The feeling about lawyers in Shakespeare’s time is the same as it is today. Shakespeare had a healthy skepticism, just like Dan Quayle.”