On Shakespeare’s birthday, join leading Shakespeare scholar Professor Emma Smith in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse to ask the question: why should we care about Shakespeare’s First Folio?

Marking the 400th anniversary of the first printed edition of Shakespeare’s collected works, our 2023 Sam Wanamaker Fellowship Lecture will explore what value there is (and was) in saving and publishing Shakespeare’s works for future generations and what impact the First Folio has had on the world.

Combining research, analysis and insightful humour, Emma will try to convince you, our audience, that you really should care about this 400 year old collection of plays.

Professor Emma Smith is a Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford specialising in the cultural reception of Shakespeare in performance, print and criticism. She is our 2023 Sam Wanamaker Fellow, which is awarded in recognition of an academic’s contribution to Shakespeare Studies. Each Sam Wanamaker Fellow delivers a public lecture on an area of their work and collaborates with the Globe to bring cutting-edge research to a wider audience.