Margot Robbie backs Tudor play 1536: 'Women are still having the same conversations'

As rumours spread that Anne Boleyn, the English queen, is about to be executed, three working-class women in Essex sit around drinking, gossiping and wondering what it all means for them.

That's the premise of 1536, the Tudor-set play that has arrived in London's West End with backing from Hollywood star Margot Robbie.

The Barbie actor tells the BBC she first heard about the project years ago, when it was just a script "and everyone was telling me I'd be obsessed with it, and they were right".

Written by Ava Pickett, the play reimagines one of the most famous moments in British history not through royalty or court politics, but through the eyes of ordinary women navigating fear, friendship and a world becoming increasingly hostile towards women.

Despite being set almost 500 years ago, many of the themes feel strikingly familiar.

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

That sense of familiarity was exactly what Pickett wanted audiences to feel. The idea for the play came from conversations she was having with her own friends about violence against women and the anxieties many women privately share with each other, the writer explains.

"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.

"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."

Despite being Pickett's debut play, 1536 has already been commissioned by the BBC as an eight-part drama series adaptation. The 32-year-old is now also co-writing Baz Luhrmann's forthcoming Joan of Arc film, Jehanne d'Arc.

The play opened at London's Almeida theatre last year and has now transferred to the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End.

A review by The Times said the "hype is justified" and called the play a "feminist drama, one that highlights a rigged system that prizes and punishes female sexuality".

The four-star review also praised the three cast members at the centre of the story - Liv Hill, Siena Kelly and Tanya Reynolds - and called them "stars in the making".

Speaking to the BBC, Hill says the play completely changed the way she thinks about 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 agrees and says the play manages to be "thought-provoking and fun at the same time".