IN her 250th anniversary year, Jane Austen is everywhere, from straight plays and screenings of favourite television adaptations to films, comedies, spoofs and a new adaptation inspired by her most popular novel – Death Comes to Pemberley, coming to Bath Theatre Royal in a world premiere production from Tuesday 5th to Saturday 90th August.
Pride and Prejudice is probably one of the world’s most adapted stories for stage and screen – it has also spawned many spin-offs. Who doesn’t like to imagine what life was like for Lizzie and Darcy when this high-spirited, intelligent woman became mistress of one of England’s grandest houses?
PD James, one of our finest crime novelists, chose this scenario as the backdrop of her last novels, 2011’s Death Comes to Pemberley, a tale of love, betrayal, and intrigue in Regency England, that cleverly combines Austen’s timeless romance with a gripping murder mystery imagined by an absolute master of the gripping crime thriller..
Six years after Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy’s happy union, their idyllic life at Pemberley is shattered when Elizabeth’s sister Lydia bursts in with shocking news: a man has been murdered in the woods and suspicion falls on her husband, the feckless George Wickham. As the investigation unfolds, dark secrets emerge, tensions rise and loyalties are tested, casting doubt on everyone’s innocence.
From the acclaimed writing team behind the hit stage adaptations The Girl on the Train and The Da Vinci Code, this production delivers all the romance, intrigue and drama you love.
Elizabeth Darcy is played by Casualty’s Jamie-Rose Duke and EastEnders star James Bye stars as Fitzwilliam Darcy. James has played Martin Fowler in the BBC’s EastEnders for 10 years, until the character’s death in the Queen Vic explosion in the 40th anniversary live episode. He competed on Strictly Come Dancing in 2022, partnered with Amy Dowden.
The cast also includes Sean Rigby, well-known as DS Jim Strange in ITV’s Endeavour, as Col Fitzwilliam, Mogali Masuku as Lydia and Sam Woodhams as Wickham.