Shakespeare Now: Creativity and Controversy

Professor Emma Smith is taking the stage at Barnard's Inn Hall on Tuesday 8 December for Shakespeare Now, a talk on how Shakespeare is performed in contemporary theatre and film. Smith is a Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, Oxford, and her work focuses on Shakespeare, early modern drama and book history. The talk is part of the 'Staging Shakespeare' series, and she'll be asking whether Shakespeare should speak for us now or whether we owe an obligation to the past world that created the plays.

It's one of the lectures in Gresham College's Autumn 2026 programme, which the college describes as covering everything from staging Shakespeare to the mysteries of music, LGBTQ histories and the medicines that have transformed humanity. The college itself was founded in 1597 under the terms of Sir Thomas Gresham's Will, making it London's first institute of higher education, and it's been giving free public lectures ever since.

If you can't make it to the hall in person, you can still catch it live online. The talk starts at 6pm at Barnard's Inn Hall in Holborn, London EC1N 2HH, and it's free to attend.