The Tamesis
Set against the backdrop of Tudor England and the arrest of Anne Boleyn, 1536 has become a must-see show of the year. Since its award-winning, sold-out run at the Almeida Theater in 2025, the play, written by breakout playwright and screenwriter Ava Pickett and directed by Lyndsey Turner, has hired a new producer, Margot Robbie, and been transferred to the West End, where it will soon be adapted by the BBC.
The show opens at the Ambassador Theater on August 1, and Margot calls Ava to ask how and why a play about Anne Boleyn has become one of the biggest hits in recent years.
Margot Robbie: Baby, how are you? Where are you?
Ava Pickett: I’m fine, baby. I’m in Dublin. Where are you?
Well, I’m in Los Angeles. Will be coming to London soon for the opening night 1536——Won’t miss it! Ava, for anyone reading this, if they’ve never heard of 1536can you give us a brief introduction?
The play tells the story of three young women living in Essex, Tudor England, and takes place over a summer against the backdrop of the capture and eventual execution of Anne Boleyn. But this is a drama that touches on a lot of things. The play explores whether female friendships can survive in a patriarchal society that is violent towards women. It’s about how what men do in the corridors of power—like kings killing queens—affects women around the world. It also deals with love, sex, friendship, dreams and more. And very dirty.
This is very, very timely. It doesn’t take much to connect what you just described to what’s in the news every day. But it’s also so much fun. How do you balance that?
I think they help each other. I like things that are both very, very funny and very, very dark. It’s about letting the audience decide their own opinion. I feel like if you’re told what to think, you stop thinking. I know that if someone hammered a point home to me for an hour and a half on stage, I would shut up.
Photo: Helen Murray
For any writers reading this, or who have ever considered writing, or want to become a writer, tell us: What is the process? Where do you write? What aspects do you find more difficult? Because it was kind of like an insular craft, but then all of a sudden, it became incredibly communal. It must be a very strange transition and you need to have a personality that can handle both situations.
