The lawyers and judges ensconced at tables at Atlanta’s New American Shakespeare Tavern last month had no difficulty identifying Shakespeare’s most famous commentary on the legal profession: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

But there was an understandable heartbeat of hesitation when they were asked by two Shakespearean actors to step into the shoes of the unwashed rabble and shout for the bloody demise of, well, lawyers and judges.