1536

'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 King Henry VIII and his Queen, Anne Boleyn. 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.

1536 is a fiendishly smart and funny play which asks whether female solidarity can survive in a world where barbarism and misogyny are state sanctioned.

Ava Pickett's play won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2024 and was first performed at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2025, directed by Lyndsey Turner. This new and revised edition was published alongside the 2026 West End production at the Ambassadors Theatre.

Ava Pickett was named Best Writer at the 2025 Stage Debut Awards and Most Promising Playwright at both the 2025 London Standard Theatre Awards and the 2026 Critics' Circle Theatre Awards.