1536
By Ava Pickett, Directed by Lyndsey Turner
Event details
Tue 6 May - Sat 7 Jun 2025
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. And 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.
Written as part of the Genesis Almeida New Playwrights, Big Plays Programme, Ava Pickett’s 1536 was the winner of the 2024 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and was commended by The George Devine Award for its “sparkling dialogue and savage undercurrent”. Lyndsey Turner (Chimerica) directs Liv Hill (Alma Mater, Three Girls), Siena Kelly (Adult Material, Domino Day) and Tanya Reynolds (A Mirror, Sex Education) in this fiendishly smart and funny new play which asks whether female solidarity can survive in a world where barbarism and misogyny are state sanctioned.
Evenings 7.30pm
Matinees 2.30pm
Content Warnings Read more about our production guidance and warnings>
Cast & Creatives
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Cast
Angus Cooper
Liv Hill
Liv Hill
Liv Hill
For the Almeida: The Doctor (Adelaide Festival).
Theatre includes: The Jungle (St Ann’s Warehouse, New York); Glee & Me (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); Top Girls (National Theatre).
Film includes: The Little Stranger; The Fight; Jellyfish.
Television includes: Miss Austen; Disclaimer; The Serpent Queen; Elizabeth Is Missing; The Great; Snatches: Moments from Women’s Lives; Three Girls.
Adam Hugill
Siena Kelly
Tanya Reynolds
Tanya Reynolds
Tanya Reynolds
Tanya trained at Oxford School of Drama, and last appeared at the Almeida Theatre in Last Words You’ll Hear as part of The Young Friends of the Almeida.
Theatre includes: Scenes with Girls (Royal Court).
Film includes: Emma; Fanny Lye Deliver’d; Undergods.
Television includes: Sex Education; The Baby; The Bisexual; Outlander; Rellik; Delicious.
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Creatives
Ava PickettAva Pickett
Writer
Ava Pickett
Ava Pickett is a writer and performer; she graduated from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2018 and was also a member of Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab of that year. In 2020 Ava was a resident Playwright at The Mercury Theatre in Colchester.
Ava is also currently developing ideas with Calamity, Big Talk, and Drama Republic with whom she is currently writing a pilot script of her original 60 min show Molly for BBC One. Her half hour comedy The Great Brittons is being developed with Golden Path and has been optioned by Channel 4. She is also writing on Danny Brocklehurst’s latest show Ten Pound Poms for Eleven.
Ava is adapting 90’s film Pret-A-Porter into a TV Series for Miramax and Paramount Plus. She will go on to adapt the first in M.A Bennett’s series of S.T.A.G.S novels for Annapurna and Urban Myth, and then John Wyndham’s The Trouble With Lichen for Route 24.
Radio includes: Roots (Radio 4).
Lyndsey Turner
Director
Max JonesMax Jones
Set and Costume Designer
Max Jones
Theatre includes: Anna Karenina; A Long Day’s Journey Into Night; Crime and Punishment; A Streetcar Named Desire; Orpheus Descending (Bunkamura Theatre, Tokyo); Jekyll & Hyde (Reading Rep Theatre); The Comedy of Errors; The Shoemakers Holiday; The Merry Wives of Windsor (RSC); Noises Off (Lyric Hammersmith/ West End); Sydney and the Old Girl (Park Theatre); All My Sons (The Old Vic/ Headlong Theatre); Meek (Headlong Theatre); Close Quarters (Out Of Joint/ Sheffield Theatres); Love and Information; Queen Coal (Sheffield Theatres); The House They Grew Up In (Chichester Festival Theatre/ Headlong Theatre); Trainspotting (Citizens Theatre); The Hypocrite (RSC/ Hull Truck Theatre, Hull); Pride and Prejudice (Regents Park Theatre/ UK tour); The York Mystery Plays (York Minster); The Crucible; Brilliant Adventures; Miss Julie (Royal Exchange Theatre); The Little Shop of Horrors; Educating Rita; Glengarry Glen Ross; Bruised; A Dolls House; Blackthorn (Theatre Clwyd); Blasted (The Other Room, Cardiff); The Broken Heart; The Tempest (Shakespeare’s Globe); Play Strindberg (Ustinov Theatre, Bath); True West (Citizens Theatre/ Tricycle Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing (NPAC, Japan); Of Mice and Men (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Contractions (Chapter Arts Centre/ Iain Goosey); Pride and Prejudice; A Winters Tale (Re-Imagined) (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre).
Tim LutkinTim Lutkin
Lighting Designer
Tim Lutkin
For the Almeida: The Tragedy of Macbeth; Chimerica (also West End, Olivier Award for Best Lighting Design).
Theatre includes: Back To The Future: The Musical; Fiddler On The Roof; Life of Pi (UK Theatre Award for Best Design and Olivier Award for Best Lighting Design); Four Quartets; Big; Noises Off; Elf; Quiz; The Girls; The Go Between; Close To You; Impossible; Strangers On A Train; The Full Monty (West End); The Crucible; Under Milk Wood; Anthony & Cleopatra; Salomé; Les Blancs (National Theatre); Timon Of Athens; The Rover; Candide; All’s Well That Ends Well (RSC); Lungs; Present Laughter; The Crucible (The Old Vic).
Other work includes: The Lion King; Mickey & The Magician; Marvel Superheroes; Frozen Celebration; Disney Junior Dream Factory (Walt Disney Imagineering).
Tingying Dong
Sound Designer
Anna Morrissey
Movement and Intimacy Director
Access Performances
Audio Described Sat 31 May 2.30pm (Touch Tour 12.30pm)
BSL Interpreted Mon 2 Jun 7.30pm
Captioned Fri 23 May 7.30pm
Relaxed Environment Wed 28 May 2.30pm & 7.30pm
For full information about how to book for our access performances please visit our Access For All page.
Concessions
All concession tickets are limited and subject to availability. Proof of eligibility is required. Concessions in the final week of performances are only valid on access performances or for Deaf and disabled bookings. More info
Deaf and disabled patrons and a companion can buy discounted tickets by calling the Box Office on 020 7359 4404 or email boxoffice@almeida.co.uk.
£5 tickets will be available to those aged 25 and under for performances from Tue 6 – Mon 12 May. Enter code 25UNDER when selecting your seats. Tickets go on sale at 5pm on Tue 15 Apr. More info
If you are aged 30 or under, over 65 or are unemployed you can book tickets at a discounted rate. Not applicable on Fri or Sat evenings.
If you live or work in the Islington area you can book best available seats for £25 for performances from Tue 6 – Wed 14 May, subject to availability. Enter promo code ISFIRST when selecting your seats. Find applicable postcodes here.
Talks & Events
Talkback
After Mon 26 May performance
A post-show talk with members of the company. Free to same-day ticket holders.
Almeida For Free
Thu 22 May 7.30pm
A free performance for those aged 25 and under. Sign up to our emails for Tickets & Events for 16-25s to be notified when tickets are available.
Production Supporters
1536 is the first play commissioned through the Genesis Almeida New Playwrights, Big Plays Programme to make its world premiere at the Almeida.
The production is generously supported by The Charlotte Aitken Trust and Cockayne Grants for the Arts, a donor advised fund held at The London Community Foundation.
