'1536' review — Anne Boleyn's fate is a strong catalyst for this colourfully anachronistic exploration of sexual politics

Read our review of historical drama 1536, starring Tanya Reynolds, Siena Kelly and Liv Hill, now in performances at the Almeida Theatre to 7 June.

When Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, was beheaded on Tower Green on 19 May 1536, capital punishment for noblewomen was unprecedented. Henry had pursued Anne for seven years, dissolving his two-decade marriage to the truly regal Catherine of Aragon and breaking with the Roman Catholic church in the process, yet she was condemned to death when she failed to produce a male heir in order to make way for her successor, Jane Seymour.

There have been countless dramas about these events and Ava Pickett’s debut play, which won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize last year, is instead set away from court, exploring the trickle-down effect of such a seismic occurrence on the common folk. Three as-of-yet unmarried friends, Anna, Jane, and Mariella, gather in a field in Essex to exchange gossip and confidences from around the time of Anne’s arrest on 2 May to shortly after her execution on 19 May – a short space of time in which a huge amount changes for all of them.

Pickett uses modern language that’s heavily sweary (the f-word might have more impact if it wasn’t used quite so profligately), with many of the anachronisms used to colourful comic effect. Lyndsey Turner’s impassioned and painterly production is imbued with elements of folk horror, taking place within Max Jones’s set design of rough shrubland and foliage, with the coming apocalypse hinted at through Jack Knowles’s lighting.

The anchor of the trio is the sexually uninhibited and ever-curious Anna (the magnetically vivacious Siena Kelly), who is often more of a frenemy than a friend. She knows that she’s the most beautiful woman in the village and is accordingly vain. Unlike the other two, Anna doesn’t have a backstory (it’s hinted that she’s a servant) and is something of a wild child of nature. The news that Jane is to marry local landowner Richard, with whom Anna begins each early scene in flagrante, and that women in nearby villages have been burned at the stake for adultery ramps up the tension, and dangers that once seemed abstract are moving increasingly close to home.

Anna partakes in sex for the fun of it and enjoys the power of being wanted by men (Anne Boleyn would also have known that feeling, but was certainly a virgin when she married Henry, refusing to be his mistress because she knew he’d then lose interest). Liv Hill’s Jane, likely an avatar for Jane Seymour (who isn’t mentioned in the text), is adorably innocent and surprisingly steely.

Completing the trio, Tanya Reynolds is gawkily droll as the philosophical Mariella, a midwife with an up-close view of the consequences of romance and sex, and who’s in love with the husband of one of her more difficult patients.

The two men, Richard (Adam Hugill) and William (Angus Cooper), are initially depicted as contrastingly rakish and duplicitous and gentle and bumbling respectively but ultimately aren’t so different thanks to the influence of Henry VIII, who could be considered the leading “manfluencer” of his time. Mariella wryly comments that she would hear the birds more clearly if there were fewer men in the world – nothing changes.

In this play featuring elements of Wolf Hall, EastEnders and Thomas Hardy, some of the writing features broad brushstrokes and too many strands that need to be tied up towards the end. Nevertheless, it boasts three outstanding central performances in a visually arresting production, and Pickett is a new voice to listen out for.

1536 is at the Almeida Theatre to 7 June.

Photo credit: 1536 (Photos by Helen Murray)