It is a truth universally acknowledged, that there are perhaps no literary romances more famous or more beloved than the story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy. But what happens to Jane Austen’s characters once the pages of Pride and Prejudice have been closed? What does their life in Derbyshire together look like? And can the course of true love ever really run smooth?
These questions – and many more – are the foundation of Death Comes to Pemberley, a novel originally written by crime novelist P.D. James to continue the Darcys’ story, which has now been brought to life on stage for the first time in a world premier at The Mill at Sonning.
Six years after the original story, our stage is set on the idyllic estate of Pemberley, home to Elizabeth Darcy (née Bennet) and Mr Darcy, who are making preparations for the annual Pemberley Ball. On a dark and stormy night, gunshots ring out across the valley and a hysterical Lydia Wickham (Elizabeth’s younger sister) arrives with news of her husband’s murder. A search party sets out for the nearby woods, only to discover a blood-soaked Wickham cradling the body of one Captain Denny. The die is cast and the culprit seems obvious. Or is it…?
Like any good murder mystery, we must identify who has motive, who has means, and who has cause… We have all the trappings of your classic ‘whodunnit?’: a letter being burned, unexplained late-night visits to rain-soaked woods, conspiratorial pairs worried their secrets will be revealed, and possibly even a ghost sighting. But this is so much more than a whodunnit. As director Joe Harmston explains, this is also a ‘whydunnit?’, with many unaddressed issues being forced out into the open, especially around the role of women and the role of mothers in Regency England.
I have to say, I thought the production was absolutely brilliant. The costumes and set are sublime and once again The Mill makes full use of its beautifully unique stage for the sprawling vista of Pemberley. All the music was provided live via a pianoforte on stage, played exquisitely by both Celia Cruqys-Finnigan as Darcy’s sister Georgiana and David Osmond as the visiting Mr Henry Alveston. (These were the days when a visiting gentleman could crack out a bit of Italian opera for after-dinner entertainment, and quite frankly, I think we should bring that back.)
But the ensemble performance is what makes the production truly impressive. Making her theatrical debut, Jamie Rose-Duke was the perfect Lizzie, headstrong and curious, and no less feisty as a wife than she was in her youth. It’s hard to explain why James Bye’s physicality as the complexly grumpy-but-romantic Darcy felt so spot on, but it really did. His performance couldn’t be further from his character as Martin Fowler in Eastenders, which he spent the best part of a decade playing before meeting his demise in the soap’s 40th-anniversary live episode.
Another soap alumni, Todd Boyce of Coronation Street delivered a brilliant turn as the investigating magistrate Sir Selwyn Hardcastle and returning Mill at Sonning favourite Sean Rigby was as excellent as always as Colonel Fitzwilliam.
A number of the cast also took on multi-roles, with Sarah Berger delivering some fantastic one-liners as the haughty Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Sam Woodhams’ George Wickham was the perfect antihero and no less brilliant as the ailing Will, son of Darcy’s loyal manservant, Mr Bidwell, played by Paul Jerricho, who handled all his roles superbly. I must also mention Mogali Masuku and Louise Faulkner who each played a handful of characters and delivered some scene-stealing performances, for very different reasons!
I do not wish to give away any spoilers, as watching the plot thicken, honours questioned, and threads unravel is what a production like this is all about. But what I will say is this. It turns out to be a story as old as time. It is just about what happens when a couple falls in love…
Death Comes to Pemberley has now finished at The Mill at Sonning and is transferring to Windsor Theatre Royal from Tuesday 22 to Saturday 26 July. It will then embark on a national tour, so if you can’t make it to Windsor, I implore you to try and get tickets to see it elsewhere. You won’t regret it.
For ticket information, visit: http://deathcomestopermberleytour.co.uk
