The second public lecture about Shakespeare in a series named in honour of former Shakespeare Institute director Professor Stanley Wells will take place in London on the evening of 5 March 2013. This annual event, which is co-organized by the Shakespeare Institute, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, and Notre Dame University, was inaugurated in 2012 with a lecture by Professor Wells himself.

The high calibre of speakers will be kept up this year with a lecture by Sir Nicholas Hytner, the artistic director of the National Theatre, whose major productions of Shakespeare have included As You Like It (at the Royal Exchange, Manchester), The Tempest and King Lear (both with John Wood, RSC), Measure for Measure (with Josette Simon, RSC), Twelfth Night (Lincoln Center, New York), and, at the National, The Winter’s Tale (with Alex Jennings), Henry V (with Adrian Lester), Henry IV parts 1 and 2 (with Michael Gambon), Much Ado About Nothing and Timon of Athens (both with Simon Russell Beale).

The event will take place at Notre Dame’s London premises, 1 Suffolk Street, just off Trafalgar Square. Further details on how to book a place will be made available here in due course.