1536, is the “West End hit of the year” (Telegraph) a historical drama with a modern edge.

Written by Ava Pickett, winner of the 2024 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Critics Circle and London Standard Award’s Most Promising Playwright, directed by Lyndsey Turner (Chimerica).

This “fresh, funny and devastating” (Daily Telegraph) new play explores the dynamics of female friendship in a world stacked against women.

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 King Henry VIII and his Queen, Anne Boleyn. And closer to home, another rumour begins to catch fire.

As these women begin to see echoes of the royal drama in their own rural lives and a rise in violence spreads throughout the land, the actions of a queen imprisoned in a tower threaten to cost them everything.

Only available May to July 2028

Scale: medium to large

Length: 1 hour and 50 minutes, no intermission

Reviews:

Time Out

The Standard

“The West End hit of the year” ★★★★★ - Daily Telegraph

“Electrifying. Thrillingly alive” ★★★★★ - The Standard

“1536 is a once-in-a-blue-moon theatrical experience” ★★★★★ - Time Out

“The hype is justified” ★★★★- The Times

“A bold, essential piece of theatre that the West End should always look to have on its stages” ★★★★★ - WhatsOnStage

“Cinematic and painterly, modern and timeless, specific and mystic. Do. Not. Miss. It.” ★★★★★ - Sunday Express

“First-rate thriller and top comedy too” ★★★★★ - Mail on Sunday