The critically acclaimed and award-winning production of 1536 will transfer to the Ambassadors Theatre for a strictly limited season from 2 May to 1 August 2026.
Following a sell-out run at the Almeida Theatre, Ava Pickett’s debut play has been hailed as “funny, saucy, and totally gripping” by the Daily Mail and “effortlessly funny, bold and ballsy” by The Guardian.
Directed by Lyndsey Turner (Chimerica), 1536 is described as “razor-sharp, darkly comic and blisteringly relevant” (The Independent). The play explores the dynamics of female friendship in a world stacked against women.
Ava Pickett, winner of the 2024 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the 2025 Stage Debut Award for Best Writer, said:
“It’s hard to put into words how much this whole process has meant to me so I’m going to resort to cliché and say it’s beyond my wildest dreams – which still feels a bit like I’m downplaying it.
I’m such an example of what can happen when people get in your corner early and so I just want to thank everyone at the Almeida Theatre and Genesis for developing it and putting it on in the first place and then thank you so much to Sonia Friedman for coming in with such enthusiasm and belief in it and wanting to bring it into the West End – I really am still pinching myself!
It’s hard to talk about ‘inspiration’ for the play, as to be honest, 1536 was written in response to the never-ending stories in the news about violence against women. It asks the question if a King can kill his wife in a palace, how does that impact three working class women in Essex? Because the world we live in has not changed as much as we are made to believe, because what happens in the corridors of power still bleeds down, as it always has.
So what a privilege it is to be able to bring Anna, Mariella and Jane to more audiences in all their complicated, funny, dark, desperate glory.”
Set in Tudor England, the play follows three women who gather in a field in Essex as rumours of a clash between King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn spread. As royal scandal echoes through their rural lives, a tide of violence threatens their existence.
The creative team includes Set and Costume Designer Max Jones, Lighting Designer Jack Knowles, Sound Designer Tingying Dong, Movement and Intimacy Director Anna Morrissey, Composer and Arranger Will Stuart, and Casting Director Amy Ball CDG.
1536 is produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, Annapurna Theatre, and the Almeida Theatre.
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
