Great debut play

Almeida Theatre

Four stars from many critics for Ava Pickett’s debut play, a product of the Almeida’s scheme to encourage new writing. It imagines the devastating effect on the lives of three ordinary women when Henry VIII executes Anne Boleyn. Modern parallels are inescapable when, throughout society, men are encouraged in their domination of women.  The reviews suggested it tailed off a little at the end, otherwise it was high praise for a production directed by Lindsay Turner and starring Tanya Reynolds, Siena Kelly and Liv Hill.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

The Guardian’s Miriam Gillinson got straight to the point: ‘Set against the impending execution of Anne Boleyn, 1536 is an effortlessly funny, bold and ballsy play, which asks the question: just how much have things really changed for women today?’

‘it’s a terrific debut, with meaty roles for three of our finest young actresses, and plenty for an incisive director like Turner to get her teeth into. Bravo,’ proclaimed The Standard’s Nick Curtis.

The Stage’s Sam Marlowe wrote, ‘Kelly, Reynolds and Hill are deliciously natural together, funny, irreverent, tender and teasing…There is, perhaps, nothing startlingly new here; but there’s a freshness and an ease about Pickett’s ear for conversational gambit and character foible that makes the play eminently watchable’.

Sarah Crompton at WhatsOnStage called it ‘an impressive, involving evening’. Time Out’s Andrjez Lukowski summed it up as ‘A fascinating feminist hybrid of EastEnders, Samuel Beckett and Wolf Hall’ or, to put it another way, ‘1536 is a droll and perceptive period piece that’s also a searing and unsettling contemporary feminist drama’.

Ella Duggan for The Independent declared ‘Pickett…has written a script that is lean but dense, rich in vernacular and laced with wit’ and ‘Director Lyndsey Turner orchestrates it all with characteristic finesse, guiding us from rolling laughter to horror with a barely susceptible gear change.’

3 stars

Clare Allfree for The Telegraph describing the play as ‘effervescent, extremely funny’ noted, ‘Pickett characterises her protagonists with eye-popping vitality and, thanks in no small part to outstanding performances from Reynolds, Kelly and Hill, in ways that vividly energise our understanding of historic female experience at the hands of men.’

1 star ⭑

The Times’ Clive Davis was mystified by the play’s appeal to others. He called it ‘the kind of simplistic, feminist-lite drama about the evils of patriarchy that you normally encounter in a one-hour slot at the Edinburgh Fringe, where my instinct would be not to write a review to spare the feelings of everyone involved.’

Critics’ Average Rating 3.6⭑

1536 can be seen at the Almeida until 7 June 2025. Click here to buy tickets direct from the theatre

If you’ve seen 1536 at the Almeida, please post your review and rating here