1536 by Ava Pickett, directed by Lyndsey Turner comes to the Almeida Theatre Tuesday 6 May – Saturday 7 June 2025.
Kings don’t kill their wives alright? It’s not – it just don’t happen. It doesn’t.
Tudor England.
A field in Essex.
Three women hurry to their childhood meeting place, thirsty for gossip from London.
Word spreads of a clash between the King, Henry VIII and his Queen, Anne Boleyn. And closer to home, another rumour threatens to catch fire.
As these women realise the parallels between their ordinary, rural lives and the royal drama taking place at a distance, they are faced with several choices, all of which end in violence.
Written as part of the Genesis Almeida New Playwrights, Big Plays Programme, Ava Pickett’s 1536 was the winner of the 2024 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and was commended by The George Devine Award for its “sparkling dialogue and savage undercurrent”. Lyndsey Turner (Chimerica) directs this fiendishly smart and funny new play which asks whether female solidarity can survive in a world where barbarism and misogyny are state sanctioned.
1536 is the first play commissioned through the Genesis Almeida New Playwrights, Big Plays Programme to make its world premiere at the Almeida. This programme is made possible with support from the Genesis Foundation.
Additional support for the production is provided by The Charlotte Aitken Trust and Cockayne Grants for the Arts & The London Community Foundation.
