1536 Tickets

1536 takes a well-known headline - King Henry VIII Has Arrested Anne Boleyn for Treason - and shifts the lens to the people history usually treats as background noise; three women in rural Essex; Anna, Jane (yes the parallels with the Tudor court are deliberate) and Mariella. The result sees the ripple effect of a public scandal and the domestic fallout that follows, fuelled of course by the local rumour economy.  The king himself never appears, but his influence is everywhere. The women are divided by the news, partially treating it as hard-to-believe celeb gossip but also a cautionary tale of how women should behave. What makes the play so clever is that it understands misogyny not as one grand violent act, but more of an atmosphere or a social contamination spreading outward from the court of Henry VIII into the farmland in Essex. That tension sits at the heart of the play: history happening over there, while ordinary women live with the consequences over here, and how they walk the tricky tightrope of men being so quick to pigeonhole them as either pious AF or dangerously sexually alluring. It’s the classic Madonna-Whore Dichotomy. Siena Kelly’s Anna is the most fascinating embodiment of that contradiction. At first, she treats desire like a form of currency. Men want her; therefore she has power. Scene after scene begins with her and Richard (Jane’s fiance) up against a tree S-H-A-G-G-I-N-G until their passion becomes something else… And this is when the play becomes completely devastating. Men adore Anna when she’s exciting, unattainable, dangerous; the ultimate male fantasy. But the second male ego enters the equation - once respectability, ownership or humiliation become involved - the language changes. Suddenly she’s “unwomanly”. A whore. Their relationship, mirroring that of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, becomes a power play or a very dangerous game of chess. Meanwhile Jane (played brilliantly by Liv Hill) tries the opposite route: goodness, obedience, softness, prayer. Be the woman men publicly approve of rather than privately desire. It doesn’t save her either.

When actress Liv Hill first read Ava Pickett’s 1536, which arrives at the Ambassadors Theatre this week, she says she was shocked by its vividness and that while "it's about three young women living a long time ago", it feels “just so completely contemporary, so relatable". “It was a genuine shock but not in a ‘this feels so wrong’ way but in a ‘this feels so right’ way. I had always thought of historical dramas as being a bit stiff and full of Shakespearean language and detached from the way we live today. But this is a history play where the way it’s written and the emotions it covers just feel so very current. I remember thinking as I read it, I could have been one of these women back in the day.”  That’s what it feels like for those watching it too, which is part of the cleverness which has contributed to its success and this West End transfer from the Almeida. Hill relates the play back to those three into two won’t go female friendships of her teenage years which most women experience, "where the dynamic is uneven. They love each other dearly, but the balance in the friendship tips one way then another throughout.” Part of the rising tension of the drama is whether this long-held friendship can survive ever-darkening external forces.

It is 1536 (Ambassadors), and far away in London, Anne Boleyn, the Queen of England, has been arrested. But surely what is happening in London won’t affect the lives of Anna, Jane and Mariella, who have lived in the same Essex village all their lives. But maybe the royal drama and its consequences have more parallels with their own lives than they can imagine, and perhaps the impact will play out in violent ways. Can their friendship survive the threat? Ava Pickett’s humdinger of a play transfers from the Almeida to the West End and explores some uncomfortable truths about love, desire, power and patriarchy and reminds us how often history neglects to tell us herstories. The RSC brings The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind to @sohoplace. Lynette Linton, who did such brilliant work running the Bush, directs this feel-good musical which tells the true story of William Kamkwamba, whose Malawi village faces catastrophe after a terrible drought and brings succour by using scrap metal to make a life-saving windmill. Chiwetel Ejiofor made a film of the story in 2019. The show had a brief run in Stratford before transferring to the South, where London audiences should connect with the epic yet touching story which brings an entire village alive with help from Frankie Bradshaw’s designs, which capture all the heat of the Malawian sun.

I’m a great admirer of the veteran playwright Michael Frayn, whose excellent, thought-provoking Copenhagen is currently being revived at Hampstead Theatre, but I’m not entirely sure he is right when he suggests that plays are being squeezed out of the West End by musicals as recently reported in The Stage.  But it’s a familiar refrain. For as long as I have been writing about theatre, someone has been saying that the end is nigh for new writing on Shaftesbury Avenue and musicals are the villains. But maybe the idea that new writing is an endangered species has always been with us, just as the mistaken idea that the Edinburgh fringe has been entirely overtaken by comedians still holds sway. Looking at the West End listings for 40 years ago, it does appear that Frayn was enjoying something of a purple patch of three plays in the West End-- Benefactors, Noises Off and Number One-- which is quite an impressive achievement. But even with Frayn’s personal contribution to keeping new writing alive, there were still more musicals than new plays in the West End back then, including well-loved shows including Cats (revived at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in the summer), Evita, West Side Story, Little Shop of Horrors and Starlight Express. The point is that the balance always swings back and forth like a pendulum, and there is always room for both musicals and new plays in a healthy theatre ecology. I’m not convinced the balance is less favourable to new writing than it was 40 years ago. But, of course, the conditions and costs of staging new writing are considerably higher. But every era has its particular challenges, although Shakespeare and his contemporaries, of course, did not have to compete with Netflix. 

With Hollywood backing, fresh award wins and a sold-out, critically acclaimed run at the Almeida Theatre, the West End transfer of 1536 is one of the most talked about new plays in London - and it hasn’t even opened yet! With the full cast confirmed today, the excitement for the historical drama only continues to build. So, who will take to the Ambassadors Theatre stage when it opens on 2 May? As previously reported, reprising their roles from the original staging are BAFTA Award-nominee Liv Hill (Three Girls) as Jane, BAFTA Award-nominee Siena Kelly (Black Mirror) as Anna, and Olivier Award-nominee Tanya Reynolds (Sex Education) as Mariella. They will be joined by Oliver Johnstone (All My Sons) as  Richard, and George Kemp (High Noon) as William. The production also welcomes understudies; Harry Bradley (The Play That Goes Wrong) who will cover Richard and William, Saroja-Lily Ratnavel (Chasing Hares) who will cover Jane and Mariella, and Sydney Spencer (Hamilton) who will cover Anna. The casting news comes in the same week that the show's playwright, Ava Pickett, received two major awards, winning both the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards and The Standard Theatre Awards for Most Promising Young Playwright for her debut play, 1536. 

The award-winning new play 1536 transfers to the West End in May 2026, bringing Ava Pickett’s bold and darkly funny Tudor drama to the Ambassadors Theatre for a strictly limited season. After a critically acclaimed premiere at the Almeida Theatre, the production quickly became one of the most talked-about new plays in London. Now soon arriving in the West End, 1536 offers audiences a striking and intimate look at friendship, power, and survival during one of the most infamous years in British history. What Is the Play 1536 About? Set in Tudor England, 1536 takes place during the dramatic year that saw the fall of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII. Rather than focusing on royal intrigue inside the palace walls, the play shifts the perspective to three young women living far from court life in rural Essex. The friends reunite in a quiet field where they once gathered as girls, eager to share the latest gossip arriving from London. Rumours begin to spread about a growing rift between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. At first the news feels distant, but as whispers of betrayal and danger circulate, the women begin to recognise unsettling echoes within their own lives. As conversations deepen, 1536 becomes a powerful exploration of loyalty, reputation and the realities of living in a world governed by men and monarchy. What begins as playful gossip gradually reveals deeper tensions, exposing how the politics of the crown can shape the lives of ordinary people. Sharp, witty and increasingly haunting, the play examines female friendship under pressure while drawing surprising parallels between Tudor England and modern conversations about power and gender. 1536 London: West End Transfer to the Ambassadors Theatre Following its acclaimed engagement at the Almeida Theatre, 1536 now transfers to the Ambassadors Theatre in London’s West End. The original production was widely praised for its bold writing and gripping performances, quickly building a reputation as one of the most exciting new plays to emerge from London theatre in recent years. The intimate setting of the Ambassadors Theatre offers audiences the chance to experience the story up close, with the play unfolding through raw conversations, shifting alliances and moments of dark humour. With its sharp dialogue and emotionally charged storytelling, 1536 presents Tudor history through a fresh lens, focusing on the lives of women whose stories rarely appear in the historical record.

This Barbie produces critically acclaimed plays about the fall of Anne Boleyn As the lead in Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights, Margot Robbie (Mary Queen of Scots) is no stranger to period dramas, so when she sees one and puts her name behind it, you know it’s going to be good. And when the production has already won awards during its initial run at the Almeida Theatre, you know it’s going to be really, really good. And that’s exactly what 1536 is. Speaking on her involvement, the Oscar nominee said “At LuckyChap [Margot Robbie’s production company], we’re always drawn to bold, female-driven stories, and Ava’s brilliant play is exactly that. We’re absolutely thrilled to be coming on board as co-producers for its West End transfer. The show is fearless, witty and emotionally resonant, and it gives voice to women whose stories still feel timely today.”

After a sell-out, critically acclaimed run at the Almeida Theatre, the award-winning new play 1536 is making its West End debut at the Ambassadors Theatre from 2 May to 1 August 2026. Described as “funny, saucy, and totally gripping” (The Daily Mail), the play has audiences hooked with its bold mix of history, humour, and contemporary relevance. Gossip; Tudor Style Set in 1536, the year King Henry VIII famously clashed with Anne Boleyn, 1536 follows three working-class women in Essex as royal scandal echoes through their lives. Anna, Mariella, and Jane gather at their childhood meeting spot, thirsting for gossip from London—and find their rural world unexpectedly mirroring the palace drama. As tensions rise, the women confront the violence that threads through history, revealing just how little power dynamics have changed