Kings don't kill their wives, alright? It's not - it just don't happen. It doesn't.

After a much lauded run at the Almedia, Ava Pickett's new play comes to the Ambassador's Theatre in Summer 2026, directed by Lyndsey Turner.

The macabre machinations of Henry VIII and his court have been dramatised and studied across all media since they happened. Still, in Ava Pickett's 1536, we get a rare glance at the ordinary, working women of the time, and how the infamous wife-killer's actions shape their own lives.

What Is The Story?

It's 1536 in England, and the Royal Palace is abuzz with the rumour that King Henry wishes to be rid of his second wife, Anne Boleyn. After splitting the country apart to marry her, it now seems only the worst end will do for Anne. Some miles away, in Essex, three women extrapolate the gossip coming from the capital with growing horror, feeling the mistrust of women in their own community grow ever darker. For if a King can kill his wife, the Queen of England, what does that mean for everyone else? A raucous yet moving work that uses modern English to translate the feeling of three normal women in rural Essex, Pickett examines how institutionalising violence against women carries a heavy price that echoes through the centuries.