Almeida Theatre announces initial casting for world premiere of Ava Pickett’s 1536

Initial casting has been announced for the world premiere of Ava Pickett’s Susan Smith Blackburn Prize-winning play 1536, which will play at the Almeida Theatre from 6 May-7 June.

Directed by Lyndsey Turner, this fiendishly smart and funny new play is set in the year of Anne Boleyn’s death, which asks whether female solidarity can survive in a world where barbarism and misogyny are state sanctioned.

Initial casting includes Liv Hill (The Jungle, St Ann’s Warehouse, New York), Siena Kelly (A Doll’s House, Sheffield Theatres), and Tanya Reynolds (A Mirror, Almeida Theatre/West End), with further casting to be announced.

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 the 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. 

The production features set and costume design by Max Jones, lighting by Tim Lutkin, sound by Tingying Dong, movement and intimacy direction by Anna Morrissey.

1536 and A Moon for the Misbegotten, directed by Almeida Associate Director Rebecca Frecknall and featuring Michael Shannon and Ruth Wilson, go on sale for Almeida Patrons, Gold Friends and Friends Plus on 25 February, Almeida Friends on 28 February and general sale on 4 March.