1536

Smart. Scrappy. Savage. 1536 – the “electrifying” (The Standard) historical drama with a modern edge.

Following a sold-out run at the Almeida Theatre, 1536 – the “effortlessly funny, bold and ballsy” (The Guardian) must-see new play storms into the West End’s Ambassadors Theatre.

Written by Ava Pickett, winner of the 2024 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and directed by Lyndsey Turner (Chimerica), this “razor-sharp, darkly comic and blisteringly relevant” (The Independent) hit explores the dynamics of female friendship in a world stacked against women.

Kings don’t kill their wives, right?

Tudor England. A field in Essex. Three women meet in secret, hungry 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.

Playing for a strictly limited run at the Ambassadors Theatre with previews from 2 May 2026. Don’t miss your chance to experience this “wonderfully vibrant, cracking debut” (The Guardian).