Washington (AFP)

Slowly, his frail figure advances on the stage. The applause redoubled, but US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg calls for calm. The hour is serious, it is necessary to judge Electre, the tragic heroine of Aeschylus.

"I'm so excited," says a spectator when she sees the magistrate arrive, a true cult in progressive American circles. "Go RBG", shouts someone to encourage this 86-year-old woman weakened this winter by an operation to the lungs.

With a slow gesture, she silenced the applause. His slender but precise voice rises in the Shakespeare Theater in Washington: "The Supreme Court of Athens will consider the complaint of Orestes against Electre."

According to the scenario adopted for this "fictitious trial", organized on Monday evening, courts ordered Electre to pay enormous damages to his brother Oreste on the grounds that he incited him to kill their mother, Clytemnestra, and that the young king has lost his reputation and mental health.

Electre assures that her brother acted under the orders of the oracle of Delphi and that she has nothing to reproach herself with. She asks the Athens Supreme Court to quash her conviction.

"King Oreste is unhappy", "he wanted to make his greatness in Athens" and it does not work so he turns against his sister, argues his lawyer --role endorsed by the lawyer Beth Brinkmann-- in the first of a long series of allusions to President Donald Trump and his campaign slogan (Render America its greatness).

- "Dysfunctional" -

Representing the interests of Orestes, Elizabeth Wydra uses the same comic spring. Because of Electre, "my client is the victim of a witch hunt," she pleads, referring to the phrase hammered by the Republican billionaire throughout the Russian investigation.

Their arrows trigger the hilarity of the audience. In Washington, voters vote Democrats by an overwhelming majority and critics, even veiled, against the President fly.

Judge Ginsburg, a spokeswoman for the left wing because of her defense of women's rights or the environment, can not afford these discrepancies. She was pinned in 2016 for criticizing the Trump candidate. This time she is content with factual questions.

At his side, Stephen Breyer - another sage of the Supreme Court who embodies a judge in this fictitious trial - quips the dramas lived by the Atrides, summarizing in an accelerated manner the murders, infanticides and parricides committed over several generations. "It seems like a very dysfunctional family," he says with a broad smile.

"Judges enjoy themselves" in our fictitious trials. "They're getting ready, they're coming with jokes," says Abbe Lowell, a lawyer and president of the Bard Association, a group of legal advocates who support the Shakespeare Theater.

- "Scratched the policies" -

Since 1994, the Bard Association has organized twice a year for a few years - against once at the beginning - "fictitious lawsuits", most often inspired by Shakespeare plays but also by Greek authors.

"We always have at least one judge of the Supreme Court, sometimes two or three," says Abbe Lowell.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a faithful, has already judged records inspired by MacBeth, Camelot or Don Quixote.

"They come to support the theater," "because they enjoy the themes" and because "it's their funniest activity in Washington," says the president of the association.

But how do they reconcile these evenings with their duty of reserve?

"We always a little scratched the policies but we do it with humor, in a good spirit," he says. "Participants know the line not to cross".

Monday night, Oreste however lost in the middle: the public and the five judges, presided over by RBG, unanimously agreed with his sister.

"We must put an end to the cycle of violence," said magnanimous Ruth Bader Ginsburg to justify his decision. "We have to find a way for people to reconcile."

? 2019 AFP