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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.
Ava Pickett's play 1536 is a fiendishly smart and funny drama which asks whether female solidarity can survive in a world where barbarism and misogyny are state sanctioned.
It was commended by the George Devine Award, won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2025, directed by Lyndsey Turner.
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.
Ava Pickett's play 1536 is a fiendishly smart and funny drama which asks whether female solidarity can survive in a world where barbarism and misogyny are state sanctioned.
It was commended by the George Devine Award, won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2025, directed by Lyndsey Turner.
120 pages, Paperback
Published February 17, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
June 3, 2026
2nd time round review:
This DID merit a reread, although it took me longer to get through it (life intervened!). I noticed more nuances and knowing what happens I could see some great subtle foreshadowing. No doubt, Pickett is the real deal and am eagerly awaiting what she'll do next.
OG review: 5+ stars!!
Believe the hype - I haven't been as blown away by a debut play since the first time I read Lucy Kirkwood, to whom Pickett bears more than a little resemblance to in her writing - and whom I suspect will have as long and illustrious career as well. Not surprisingly, they both won the prestigious Susan Blackburn Award for their first efforts.
After a sold-out premiere at the Almeida in May 2025, this play has just reopened in the West End to thunderous reviews, with Margot Robbie as one of the lead producers, no less (she called it 'the best play I've ever read'!)- and tickets are not only scarce again but going for insane amounts (we're talking over $1000!!).
It's a stunning work of theatrical imagination, detailing the lives of three typical young women in a nameless village in Essex in the titular year, beginning at the time of the rumored arrest of Anne Boleyn, and moving forwards to her eventual beheading.
The uncanny parallels to today's society and how insidiously misogyny, gossip, fake news, and political power can destroy lives is just as timely now as it was back then but is invoked without hitting one over the head in an obvious fashion.
Luckily, BBC has already picked it up for a television adaptation, hopefully with the original cast intact, since I won't be able to see it in London. But now, you'll excuse me, as I need to immediately reread it to catch all the nuances and try to fathom out just how Ms. Pickett worked her magic...
I've already ordered two other scripts that she's written since - adaptations of Austen's Emma and Blakemore's The Manningtree Witches and eagerly await the publication of a forthcoming play about Helen of Troy (Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy).
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/202...
https://www.the-independent.com/arts-...
https://www.broadwayworld.com/westend...
https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/th...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9c_K...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFhcR...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tJpV...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkiXk...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuwmt...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En2PU...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2zp2...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-SCD...
This DID merit a reread, although it took me longer to get through it (life intervened!). I noticed more nuances and knowing what happens I could see some great subtle foreshadowing. No doubt, Pickett is the real deal and am eagerly awaiting what she'll do next.
OG review: 5+ stars!!
Believe the hype - I haven't been as blown away by a debut play since the first time I read Lucy Kirkwood, to whom Pickett bears more than a little resemblance to in her writing - and whom I suspect will have as long and illustrious career as well. Not surprisingly, they both won the prestigious Susan Blackburn Award for their first efforts.
After a sold-out premiere at the Almeida in May 2025, this play has just reopened in the West End to thunderous reviews, with Margot Robbie as one of the lead producers, no less (she called it 'the best play I've ever read'!)- and tickets are not only scarce again but going for insane amounts (we're talking over $1000!!).
It's a stunning work of theatrical imagination, detailing the lives of three typical young women in a nameless village in Essex in the titular year, beginning at the time of the rumored arrest of Anne Boleyn, and moving forwards to her eventual beheading.
The uncanny parallels to today's society and how insidiously misogyny, gossip, fake news, and political power can destroy lives is just as timely now as it was back then but is invoked without hitting one over the head in an obvious fashion.
Luckily, BBC has already picked it up for a television adaptation, hopefully with the original cast intact, since I won't be able to see it in London. But now, you'll excuse me, as I need to immediately reread it to catch all the nuances and try to fathom out just how Ms. Pickett worked her magic...
I've already ordered two other scripts that she's written since - adaptations of Austen's Emma and Blakemore's The Manningtree Witches and eagerly await the publication of a forthcoming play about Helen of Troy (Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy).
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/202...
https://www.the-independent.com/arts-...
https://www.broadwayworld.com/westend...
https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/th...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9c_K...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFhcR...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tJpV...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkiXk...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuwmt...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En2PU...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2zp2...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-SCD...
May 5, 2026
Phenomenal! Awards, awards, give it all the awards!!!!
May 4, 2026
5- Sensational stuff !!!!!!!!!!
May 10, 2025
Utterly phenomenal
June 15, 2025
A perfect play? Funny, meaningful, contemporary yet also wonderfully historical, important. Ava Pickett is a revelation.
September 15, 2025
Good!! Tense!!
February 16, 2026
Absolutely phenomenal, such a tense, witty, incredible piece of theatre! Would love to see this live!
April 15, 2026
Great writing
Read
November 23, 20251536 fizzles and pops with drama, tension and copious amounts of humour, all underscored by very sinister happenings in London, a not-so-distant turbulence that slowly permeates the surrounding English counties. I found this play to be so witty and imbued with so much vigour that is solidified by the modern dialogue. The parallels between 16th century patriarchal authoritarianism and politics of the now is unflinching.
I audibly gasped more than once. A fantastic journey through love, friendship, protection, grief, loss and revelations.
I audibly gasped more than once. A fantastic journey through love, friendship, protection, grief, loss and revelations.
May 25, 2026
Absolutely stunning, riveting new play left me shaking and astounded by its power . . . and I read it in the Kindle version, mesmerized and unable to stop until I finished it. It's hard to imagine a less hospitable environment for giving a play its due, and 1536 still wrecked me, both for its immediate story and its mirror-like reflection of our current gone-mad-with-misogyny moment. Seen in a theater with these characters embodied by great actors, 1536 must slam the audience like HAMLET; I hope some day I have the good fortune to witness that.
1536 takes place in a small English town in that calendar year, and follows three young women as they try to assimilate the news that King Henry VIII has turned against his Queen, Anne Boleyn, and placed her under arrest in the Tower. How could such a thing be possible? She's the Queen! And Henry had moved heaven and earth to make her so . . . surely it's a crazy rumor. A mistake of some kind. She's probably back on her throne by now. But as the hot summer wears on, the news gets worse, and even in Essex women find their lives changing, freedoms vanishing, men becoming ever more belligerent as they follow the King's lead.
Sheer brilliance of a particularly rare kind: Ava Pickett is already a great playwright.
1536 takes place in a small English town in that calendar year, and follows three young women as they try to assimilate the news that King Henry VIII has turned against his Queen, Anne Boleyn, and placed her under arrest in the Tower. How could such a thing be possible? She's the Queen! And Henry had moved heaven and earth to make her so . . . surely it's a crazy rumor. A mistake of some kind. She's probably back on her throne by now. But as the hot summer wears on, the news gets worse, and even in Essex women find their lives changing, freedoms vanishing, men becoming ever more belligerent as they follow the King's lead.
Sheer brilliance of a particularly rare kind: Ava Pickett is already a great playwright.
March 17, 2026
Brilliant! I had been dying to read 1536, and it did not disappoint.
Anna: Has it always been like this?
Mariella: I don't know.
Anna: Will it always be like this?
Mariella: I don't know.
1536 is about women living in a world of men; women in the Tudor era, women today, and women throughout history. It is centred on Anna, Jane, and Mariella, friends who live in a rural village in the Tudor period. 1536 is a pivotal year for England and for women, given it is when Queen Anne Boleyn is accused of treason and is later decapitated for it. One of the play's very first scenes brings news that the Queen has been arrested, so we follow these women's lives, while the events in London have ripple effects in this place that once seemed so removed from the world of the monarchs.
I loved it! It is a play about the Tudor period, but it is also about today and the feminicides and violence targeting women, without needing to make the connection explicit. It discusses how the actions of those in power enable others to do the same, and the violent masculinity that is present today, but has been around for centuries.
I cannot wait to watch the play later this year, but I'm glad I made the time to read it beforehand.
Anna: Has it always been like this?
Mariella: I don't know.
Anna: Will it always be like this?
Mariella: I don't know.
1536 is about women living in a world of men; women in the Tudor era, women today, and women throughout history. It is centred on Anna, Jane, and Mariella, friends who live in a rural village in the Tudor period. 1536 is a pivotal year for England and for women, given it is when Queen Anne Boleyn is accused of treason and is later decapitated for it. One of the play's very first scenes brings news that the Queen has been arrested, so we follow these women's lives, while the events in London have ripple effects in this place that once seemed so removed from the world of the monarchs.
I loved it! It is a play about the Tudor period, but it is also about today and the feminicides and violence targeting women, without needing to make the connection explicit. It discusses how the actions of those in power enable others to do the same, and the violent masculinity that is present today, but has been around for centuries.
I cannot wait to watch the play later this year, but I'm glad I made the time to read it beforehand.
May 21, 2026
“Just cos it wasn’t taken by violence doesn’t mean it wasn’t taken”
This show just recently opened on the West End and it caught my attention pretty easily. Produced by Margot Robbie and the setting/content feels like a mashup of Six the Musical and John Proctor Is the Villain. It’s not as funny as those two (although maybe it is seeing it staged) but I really liked how the framing lets you into this friend(?) group and see how women at the time (and now) often find camaraderie and simultaneous opposition with each other as a reaction to the social norms.
This show just recently opened on the West End and it caught my attention pretty easily. Produced by Margot Robbie and the setting/content feels like a mashup of Six the Musical and John Proctor Is the Villain. It’s not as funny as those two (although maybe it is seeing it staged) but I really liked how the framing lets you into this friend(?) group and see how women at the time (and now) often find camaraderie and simultaneous opposition with each other as a reaction to the social norms.
April 2, 2026
Ben Reads Plays #9
This was sooo cool!! The modern gossipy way they speak is so fun and really sweeps you up into it. But it’s also so masterful in making sure you’re aware of how desperately important this ‘gossip’ really is. Every scene is important and sets up dominoes that are all knocked down in the last unbelievable whirlwind of a scene that builds like crazy.
This was sooo cool!! The modern gossipy way they speak is so fun and really sweeps you up into it. But it’s also so masterful in making sure you’re aware of how desperately important this ‘gossip’ really is. Every scene is important and sets up dominoes that are all knocked down in the last unbelievable whirlwind of a scene that builds like crazy.
April 18, 2026
When I finished reading this I put the book down and just yelled. I couldn't do anything else. This is bracingly good. Clever, sexy, filled with action, but also horrifying, and smart about the violence it contains.
This is a different kind of history of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. A really, really smart take on the English history play and the British state-of-the-nation play.
This is a different kind of history of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. A really, really smart take on the English history play and the British state-of-the-nation play.
May 19, 2026
objectively brilliant! read the first half before watching the play... it started so comedic, so the plot veering into darkness and the really visceral violence against women crashed into me like a train. well written but anxiety inducing for sure.
already been feeling quite doom and gloom lately, so wish I could experience some feminist literature that’s a bit more hopeful.
already been feeling quite doom and gloom lately, so wish I could experience some feminist literature that’s a bit more hopeful.
May 8, 2025
A revelation
February 16, 2026
My definition of success is being able to write this brilliantly/ acting in a play this phenomenal. Ava Pickett is the 2020’s Princess Diana.
February 27, 2026
worth the ads on scribd to read the pdf
March 5, 2026
loved!
March 7, 2026
May be the best play I’ve ever read
April 21, 2026
Can’t wait to see this on stage - such a gripping story with relatable and meaty characters. Such a good premise.
May 19, 2026
absolutely phenomenal
May 26, 2026
Riveting!!!!!!!!
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews