Death Comes to Pemberley ★★★ Theatre Royal Windsor | July 22 - 26, 2025


What happened to Elizabeth and Darcy after that happy ending of Pride and Prejudice? P.D. James' mystery novel continues the story of the contentious couple when there is a murder on the doorstep of Darcy's ancestral home, Pemberley. The wicked Mr Wickham is back, and after his earlier attempted seduction of Darcy's sister, Georgiana, and his forced marriage to Elizabeth's silly sister, Lydia, this time he is involved in homicide. And, much to the chagrin of Darcy's snobbish aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, once again he is dragging the Darcy family name into his affairs. It is a great premise for a whodunit, but unfortunately James' novel doesn't easily transfer to the stage. Because Duncan Abel and Rachel Wagstaff's adaptation tries to get all the twists and turns in, the plot remains fairly convoluted. The audience needs to keep its wits about it to track all the characters and to absorb all of the information. It is this density of the story which results in a large amount of narration. There is simply too much saying and not enough seeing in this drama. While in James' novel, she does a nice job of maintaining the lightly ironic cadences of Jane Austen's prose, this also becomes an issue in the staged version. For the most part, the cast seem to be delivering lines rather than inhabiting their characters. Avoiding this pitfall is Sean Rigby's Colonel Fitzwilliam who actually comes across as more natural and less mannered than the others. A central theme in Austen's work is that of one's performance, the balance between self-expression and social obligation. This is often represented by the metaphor of dancing, and that idea is neatly taken up in James' novel by the planning for the Pemberley ball. However, in this theatrical version, the early dancing sequences seem as flat-footed as the approach to the overall production. Nevertheless, there remains a lot of fun in the idea of marrying a murder mystery with Austen's subtle social satire, and Death Comes to Pemberley can be an enjoyable evening in the theatre.

Rated: ★★★

Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Pamela Raith

When, Where, Getting there:
Map & Location: 32 Thames St, Windsor SL4 1PS, UK

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