Liv Hill, Siena Kelly and Tanya Reynolds are cast in the world premiere of Ava Pickett’s Susan Smith Blackburn Prize-winning play 1536.
Lyndsey Turner?(Chimerica) directs this fiendishly smart and funny new play, 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. The production opens on Tuesday 13 May with previews from Tuesday 6 May, and runs until Saturday 7 June.
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 Tuesday 25 February, Almeida Friends on Friday 28 February and general sale on Tuesday 4 March.?
1536
by Ava Pickett
Director: Lyndsey Turner; Set and Costume Designer: Max Jones; Lighting Designer: Tim Lutkin; Sound Designer: Tingying Dong; Movement and Intimacy Director: Anna Morrissey
Tuesday 6 May – Saturday 7 June
Press Night: Tuesday 13 May, 7pm
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.?
Written as part of the?Genesis Almeida New Playwrights, Big Plays Programme,?Ava Pickett’s?1536?was the winner of the 2024 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and was commended by The George Devine Award for its “sparkling dialogue and savage undercurrent”.?Lyndsey Turner?(Chimerica) directs this fiendishly smart and funny new play which asks whether female solidarity can survive in a world where barbarism and misogyny are state sanctioned.
Cast includes Liv Hill, Siena Kelly and Tanya Reynolds, with further casting to be announced.
1536?is the first play commissioned through the?Genesis Almeida New Playwrights, Big Plays Programme?to make its world premiere at the Almeida.
The production is generously supported by The Charlotte Aitken Trust and Cockayne Grants for the Arts, a donor advised fund held at The London Community Foundation.
A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN
by Eugene O'Neill
Director: Rebecca Frecknall; Set Designer: Tom Scutt; Costume Designer: Moi Tran; Lighting Designer: Jack Knowles; Sound Designer: Peter Rice; Composer: NYX
Tuesday 17 June – Saturday 16 August
Press Night: Wednesday 25 June, 7pm
There is no present or future – only the past, happening over and over again – now.
On a barren farm in Connecticut, Josie Hogan dreams of more. Abandoned by her brothers and trapped with her volatile father, the desire for change feels urgent.??
Haunted by the death of his mother, James Tyrone Jr drinks to cover the pain. Trapped in a spiral of guilt and shame he longs for connection.
When the two are brought together, a single night reveals a devastating truth and both will be altered forever.
Almeida Associate Director and multi–Olivier Award winner?Rebecca Frecknall?(A Streetcar Named Desire;?Cabaret) directs Golden Globe-winner?Ruth Wilson?(The Affair;?Luther) and Academy Award-nominated?Michael Shannon?(George & Tammy;?Boardwalk Empire) in this “scorching play about the eternal American theme of reality and illusion”?(The Guardian) from?Eugene O’Neill, one of the great 20th?century playwrights.
Presented in association with Smith & Brant Theatricals.
