Margot Robbie Backs 1536 Play on Working-Class Women Amid Anne Boleyn Rumors

Three working-class women in Essex drink and gossip about rumors of Queen Anne Boleyn's execution. That's the setup for 1536, a Tudor play now running in London's West End with production support from Margot Robbie.

The Barbie star told the BBC she heard about the project years ago as a script. "Everyone was telling me I'd be obsessed with it, and they were right," she said.

Ava Pickett wrote the play, which reimagines a famous moment in British history through ordinary women facing fear, friendship and a world growing hostile to them. Set almost 500 years ago, its themes feel current.

"It's set in 1536 but the conversations these women have are the same ones that women now are having," Robbie said. "I feel like I'm friends with these women and I know them."

Pickett aimed for that familiarity. The idea came from talks with her friends about violence against women and private anxieties they share. "I wanted to create characters that aren't incredibly brave or incredibly capable of changing the world around them, but instead they are just three normal women experiencing a rising tide of misogyny," she said.

"A lot of us are having similar conversations with our mates where we think about how terrifying it feels to be a woman right now."

Pickett's debut play has drawn a BBC commission for an eight-part drama series. The 32-year-old also co-writes Baz Luhrmann's upcoming Joan of Arc film, Jehanne d'Arc.

1536 opened at London's Almeida Theatre last year and moved to the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End.

The Times gave it four stars and said the hype is justified. It called the play a feminist drama that highlights a rigged system prizing and punishing female sexuality. The review praised central cast members Liv Hill, Siena Kelly and Tanya Reynolds as stars in the making.

Hill told the BBC the play changed how she views historical dramas. "I hated history at school because it felt very dry, but this play makes the Tudor era feel so relevant and relatable because these girls could be girls from 2026."

Robbie said it is thought-provoking and fun. "It doesn't feel like homework, but it's also nourishing and you want to talk to your friends about it afterwards."

Reynolds said the play stands out by focusing on women often absent from historical accounts. "There's so little record of normal people from this time, there's hardly anything but I think they probably would have been a lot like the women in the play."

Pickett said re-examining history through the female gaze, especially for overlooked women, teaches a lot. "These are everyday working-class women living on the edge of a country and it's incredibly important we try and wrench women out of the shadows."

The Guardian's four-star review from the Almeida run asked how much things have really changed for women today. It called the play both easy and deeply unsettling.

London Theatre's four-star review said it feels modern in outlook, speech and impact. The site noted it shows struggles with gendered hypocrisy, slut-shaming, misinformation and mob mentality.