Death Comes to Pemberley on stage is a play adaptation of the famous novel by P.D. James. It’s set as a sequel to Pride and Prejudice, featuring favourite characters from Jane Austen’s most famous novel. Here’s my Death Comes to Pemberley on stage theatre review.
Overview of Death Comes to Pemberley on stage
Death Comes to Pemberley on stage is based on the story by P.D James. It’s a murder mystery sequel to Jane Austen’s most famous novel, Pride and Prejudice. My Death Comes to Pemberley on stage theatre review will talk about the plot – so be aware that there are some spoilers!
Plot synopsis of Death Comes to Pemberley on stage
Set six years after the events of Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth and Darcy are happily married and living at Pemberley. As they prepare for their annual ball, their tranquil life is shattered by the sudden arrival of Elizabeth’s sister Lydia. She bursts in, hysterically claiming that her husband George Wickham has been murdered in the woods near the estate. Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and others rush to investigate, only to find Wickham alive, but standing over the dead body of his friend, Captain Denny. Wickham, drunk and distraught, says that Denny’s death is his fault, prompting a full-scale murder investigation.
Wickham is arrested and charged with Denny’s murder. Despite Darcy’s testimony that Wickham is incapable of murder, Wickham’s lack of an alibi and his troubled past weigh heavily against him. Wickham’s lawyer, a family friend called Henry Alveston, tries to defend Wickham in court. Meanwhile, Elizabeth spends time with a local family who live in a cottage on the Pemberley estate, near where the murder happened. She starts to uncover that family’s secrets as she helps the family care for their sick son, Will. Elizabeth discovers that Will’s sister, Louisa, has a baby. And Louisa believes the father of her illegitimate baby is a military man called Freddy.
Wickham’s trial and the outcome
Wickham stands trial, and is found guilty of murdering Denny. He is sentenced to death by hanging. However, more details about Wickham’s secret dealings come to light. It’s discovered that it is actually Wickham who is the father of Louisa’s baby – he was pretending to be the man called Freddy. There was a plot, involving Wickham, Denny and Colonel Fitzwilliam to give the baby to Mrs Young – who is revealed to be Wickham’s sister. However, in the woods that night, Denny had confronted Wickham about the dishonest plans, and had run towards the cottage in the woods at night. Louisa’s brother, Will, had mistaken Denny for Freddy and attacked him to try to protect his sister. Will only struck Denny once, but it caused Denny to fall, and the fall killed him.
Will confesses the truth to Elizabeth. She is able to get his written confession just before he dies, which sets Wickham free.
Wickham and Lydia leave Pemberley together, hoping to start a new life together in America. Georgiana Darcy, who throughout the trial had been fearing she was going to be forced to marry Colonel Fitzwilliam, instead finds love with the lawyer Henry Alveston. And Elizabeth and Darcy enjoy the peace that has returned to Pemberley.
What I liked about Death Comes to Pemberley on stage
I saw the touring production of Death Comes to Pemberley in 2025 at the Bath Theatre Royal, starring EastEnders‘ James Bye as Fitzwilliam Darcy.
I’ll be honest – Death Comes to Pemberley on stage wasn’t great. I’m a massive fan of Jane Austen, and I enjoyed the book and the TV series of Death Comes to Pemberley. So I was looking forward to seeing it on stage. But I was really disappointed. I’ll get to all of the aspects I didn’t like later – but first, I’ll say the positives.
Death Comes to Pemberley on stage is largely true to the book. While there are some differences, the story in essence is the same as the book. So if you enjoyed the book, then the play follows the same story.
I liked that the plot was easy to follow in Death Comes to Pemberley on stage. The production did a good job of making it clear who each of the characters were, and their role in the murder mystery. I’ve seen several murder mysteries on stage where I’ve left the theatre at the end feeling completely confused, and not able to work out who actually did the murder mystery. Death Comes to Pemberley on stage isn’t like that. It’s very clear who is killed, who is suspected of committing the murder, and who actually did commit the crime.
There were moments when the acting, the set, and the staging were ok. A highlight of the play was when the magistrate was questioning the pub landlady. Her performance in this section was excellent, with a lot of comedy when she kept remembering extra details. There were also some good moments from the coach driver/doctor. And there were also moments in the play with nice piano playing from Georgiana.
What I wasn’t so sure about
Unfortunately, apart from these positives, I didn’t enjoy the show that much. There aren’t many theatre shows where I’m tempted to leave in the interval, but this was one of them. I made myself stay to the end, and the second half was marginally better, but still not great.
Lack of movement and emotion
The main issue I have with this production of Death Comes to Pemberley on stage was the complete lack of movement and emotion on the stage. Throughout so much of the play, the characters were just stood still, or sat down and not moving. They all delivered their lines – but with hardly any emotion, and hardly moving at all. I felt like shouting out at them to just take a few steps around the stage. They would literally do entire scenes in exactly the same position. It made the play quite boring. Aside from listening to the dialogue, there was nothing interesting to see on stage.
Even moments that should have been filled with emotion were sadly lacking in any emotion of excitement. For example, when Lydia first enters, she’s meant to be crying that she thinks Mr Wickham is dead. In the book, and in the TV series, she’s in uncontrollable hysterics. But in the play, the hysterics are lacking. She came onto the stage and delivered her first few lines so calmly that it took me a moment to realise this was Lydia, and she was announcing the murder. This moment in the play should have been so much more emotional and lively.
Lady Catherine’s performance was also a much more tamed-down version of the Lady Catherine in Pride and Prejudice. In Death Comes to Pemberley on stage, Lady Catherine was a lot more demure. While she had a few amusing lines (which were taken straight from the book), her performance overall was fairly unremarkable.
Unimaginative set
As well as the lack of movement and emotion from the actors making the play quite boring, the set also wasn’t great. The set worked well for the first scene, inside Pemberley. There was a marble floor, a nice piano, and some nice windows at the back of the stage. However, the set didn’t change much. When the men were searching the Pemberley Woods for Mr Wickham and Capitan Denny, there were projections of trees at the back, so that was something. But the marble floor and piano in the foreground of the stage were a bit of a distraction, and it was hard to believe that they were in the woods when these elements were still the focal point on the stage.
One of the biggest let downs of the set was in the second half, for the scenes in prison. Mr Darcy goes to visit Mr Wickham in prison. In the 1800s, prison would have been an awful place to be. But Death Comes to Pemberley on stage didn’t try at all to capture any of the realities of 19th century prison life. The marble floor and piano were still on stage. And the background projection was still a scene of beautiful English countryside. Aside from a stool in the middle of the stage, there wasn’t any set change that could indicate that this scene was inside a horrible prison.
This could have been a moment in the show to really show some emotion, and get the audience really invested – Mr Wickham might be about to be found guilty and be hanged. But instead, this scene is set with a marble floor, piano and English countryside. And the two men just stand there and deliver their lines.
The weird Mr Wickham moment
One of my biggest issues with Death Comes to Pemberley on stage was a scene they added, which definitely isn’t in the book or the TV series. And to me, this scene felt completely wrong.
When Mr Wickham is first brought into Pemberley, after being discovered in the woods with Captain Denny’s body, he’s drunk and covered in blood. Mr Darcy specifically asks Elizabeth not to go near Wickham while he’s out contacting the local magistrate. And that seems logical – Mr Wickham is drunk and a murder suspect.
However, Elizabeth ignores Mr Darcy’s wishes as soon as he leaves. She takes Mr Wickham to a bedroom, and then takes off his blood-soaked shirt and washes him. It’s a really weird scene, and completely wrong for Elizabeth’s character to do that. There’s no way that Elizabeth would be so disrespectful to her husband. Especially when she’s got history with Mr Wickham, and knows Mr Darcy’s history with the man too. And, for a woman in the 1800s, washing a half-naked man who isn’t her husband would be scandalous. I felt so uncomfortable watching that scene – it felt like Elizabeth was almost cheating on Mr Darcy. And that is so against what the characters should be. I don’t know why Death Comes to Pemberley on stage added this scene, but it felt so wrong.
Wrong character choices
In Death Comes to Pemberley on stage, there were several characters that I felt made the wrong choice about how to play their character compared to the book. My biggest issue was with Henry Alveston. In the book, he’s an intelligent lawyer, and Georgiana’s love interest. But his character in this performance wasn’t anything like that. Instead, he was a simpering imbecile. He had a high-pitched giggly voice, acted child-like, and acted like he had almost no intelligence. It was so wrong compared to his character in the book.
Georgiana’s character was also questionable. In Death Comes to Pemberley on stage, she was acting like a silly 15 year old. But when Death Comes to Pemberley is set, she’d be a lot older than that. Even in Pride and Prejudice she’s about 18, so by the time this is set, she should be early 20s. And her character is a lovely, sensible woman. Not a silly giggling 15 year old girl. I guess the only positive of her playing her character like this is that it fit with Alveston’s character – they were silly and giggly together. But it was wrong.
Colonel Fitzwilliam was also portrayed as an older, grumpy man in this stage show. In Pride and Prejudice he’s described as charming and sociable. So I’m not sure what went wrong in his life for him to be such a miserable middle-aged man in this stage show. And it made his pursuit of Georgiana for a wife really creepy. He was playing a grumpy middle aged man, and she was portraying her character as a giggly 15 year old.
Will’s death, and Louisa reuniting with ‘Freddy’
There were yet more moments in Death Comes to Pemberley on stage that should have been filled with emotion, but instead were just boring and poorly executed. One of these is Will’s death. This should have been an emotional moment. The audience should have felt an emotional connection to Will by this point in the show, so it should be sad when he dies after handing over his confession. But this moment wasn’t sad at all. It was so unremarkably acted that it took me a moment to realise he’d died. He just stopped talking, and his mother and sister didn’t really react that much. Surely they should have been upset at his death and showed some emotion.
But then it got worse. About 5-10 seconds after his death, Will stood up. He folded his blanket, and then walked calmly off stage. It was such a ridiculous moment, to see the man who had just ‘died’ tidy up his blanket and then walk away. Surely someone could have pushed him in his chair offstage at the end of the scene.
There’s also a scene towards the end of the show where Louisa comes face to face with Wickham – who she believed to be Freddy. Again, this should have been an emotional moment. Louisa was in love with ‘Freddy’, and would have been distraught to find out he was actually Wickham and wasn’t going to marry her. But this moment in the play, like so many other moments, lacked emotion. The two characters looked at each other, said a few words, then Wickham said he was leaving for America so they said goodbye. By this point in Death Comes to Pemberley on stage, I’d lost hope for any emotion, but it was still disappointing.
Would I recommend Death Comes to Pemberley on stage
Unfortunately, I wouldn’t recommend going to see Death Comes to Pemberley on stage. Even if you like the book and the TV series, this play will be disappointing. The lack of emotion, movement or interesting set just make the entire play feel quite boring. It’s a shame, because the subject material could be great, and there’s a great potential for this story to be a fantastic play. But this production of Death Comes to Pemberley on stage sadly didn’t realise that potential.
Hope you enjoyed my Death Comes to Pemberley on stage theatre review! Check out my other theatre reviews for more shows in the West End, across the UK and the world.
