Dragon Review: Death Comes to Pemberley – Yvonne Arnaud Theatre

Published on: 13 Aug, 2025
Updated on: 13 Aug, 2025

Four leading players from Death comes to Pemberley Sam Woodhams, James Bye, Jamie-Rose Duke and Sean Rigby

By Barbara Ford

photos by Pamela Raith

What happened to Elizabeth Bennet, heroine of Pride & Prejudice, after she married Mr Darcy?

If you have ever asked this question a touring show, Death comes to Pemberley, from The Mill at Sonning Theatre now showing at the Yvonne Arnaud, might answer that question and in any case provides a bit of summer fun. It is pastiche Jane Austen crossed with pastiche Agatha Christie. Based on a novel by PD James, it shows the Pride & Prejudice characters six years on.

Elizabeth Bennet is now happily married to Mr Darcy, is a successful chatelaine of the Pemberley estate and copes well with Darcy’s arrogant and domineering aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Georgiana Darcy, Darcy’s young sister, is being courted by two different gentlemen.

Georgiana (Celia Cruwys-Finnegan) and Henry (David Osmond) find they both enjoy music

Surprisingly, the dastardly Wickham and Lydia Bennet, now married, are still together, though he is still estranged from the Darcys. The peace of preparations for the Pemberley Ball is shattered by shots in the woods and a dead body – dun dun-dun dun!

We then proceed with the detection, led by local magistrate Sir Selwyn Hardcastle, also somewhat arrogant but precise and fair-minded, and supported by a comic turn of a doctor.

Lady Catherine (Sarah Berger) turns on Colonel Fitzwilliam (Sean Rigby) and Mr Darcy (James Bye)

The investigation takes in the Pemberley servants and dependents, and the local pub landlady, giving us a view of the lower orders as well as the privileged. The dénouement – no spoilers here – works reasonably well and the play ties up all the loose ends satisfactorily.

The look of the thing is beautifully in period. The set is very effective (despite one wardrobe (literally) malfunction which took a while to fix), with clever use of sliding screens to move from drawing room to country cottage to prison cell. The Regency-style costumes are lovely, especially Mr Darcy’s sumptuous waistcoat.

Elizabeth (Jamie-Rose Duke) consoles her distraught sister Lydia (Mogali Masuk’s)

The script is variable, with somewhat tedious interpolations of 21st century pieties such as being true to yourself, women’s right to have an opinion or a baby out of wedlock, and whether to hold a ball in time of the Napoleonic war, all jostling with much more in-period talk of honour.

And a bit cloth-eared: the lady of the manor invites the butler’s daughter to call her by her first name, and the maidservant calls her “Miss” instead of “Madam”.

Elizabeth (Jamie-Rose Duke) takes it upon herself to wash the victim’s blood off Wickham (Sam Woodhams)

There were good bits too: Lady Catherine de Bourgh (Sarah Berger) had some good lines à la Maggie Smith/Dowager Countess, Lydia Wickham (Mogali Masuku) emoted convincingly about the wrongs done to her husband, and the stripping off of Wickham’s shirt for Elizabeth to wash blood off him amusingly recalled the wet-shirt episode in the film of Pride & Prejudice – but I’m not sure whether that allusion was intentional.

The excellent acting redeems the various defects. Jamie-Rose Duke, according to the programme a theatrical debutante, is delightful as Elizabeth, her warm voice empathising with all the distressed people around her as she bosses them about (a woman’s right, doncha know).

The handsome James Bye, who played Martin Fowler in Eastenders until his character was killed off this year, does his best as Mr Darcy to maintain some authority of his own. Wickham, played by the also rather gorgeous Sam Woodhams, prates convincingly about his honour while behaving badly again.

Celia Cruwys-Finnegan does well as the sweet younger sister, a difficult role to make interesting: she is convincingly fresh and charming. As to her suitors, Sean Rigby makes a good fist of Colonel Fitzwilliam, the bluff no-nonsense one who hates music, as does David Osmond of Henry Alveston, the likeable young one who loves it. Guess which one she chooses?

For me, this was a good evening out, and what’s more, much more enjoyable than the book.

To make a booking contact the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre here or call: 01483 440000.