Austen-inspired murder mystery that will appeal to crime fiction fans

Death Comes to Pemberley

The Mill at Sonning

JANE Austen turns 250 this year so it’s not surprising that theatres around the country are staging plays drawn from her continually popular novels.

One of her greatest devotees was P D James, the crime novelist and grand lady of English letters.

James’s last novel, Death Comes to Pemberley, written when she was around the age of 90, combined her two greatest enthusiasms by melding the world of Austen with that of a traditional murder mystery.

It has now been adapted for the stage by Duncan Abel and Rachel Wagstaff for the Mill at Sonning where it premiered in May under the direction of Joe Harmston before it embarks on a regional tour. As the title hints, Death Comes to Pemberley draws on Austen’s most famous work, Pride and
Prejudice.

The action takes place six years after the fairytale marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy. The couple are living happily ever after on the grand Pemberley estate. Or not quite happily, it turns out, since the world beyond their gated paradise will keep intruding.

As they are planning for the annual ball, a coach careers up the drive. From it tumbles distraught Lydia, sister to Elizabeth and wife to the rakish soldier Wickham.

Her husband and a fellow officer have disappeared in the woodland surrounding the grand house. A search party discover Lydia’s husband by the murdered body of his comrade. Cue arrest, inquest and trial. Did Wickham do it? The rules of detective fiction tell us that he didn’t – unless it’s a double bluff, of course.

The action of Death Comes to Pemberley is split between showing the effects of the murder on the household, particularly on Elizabeth and Darcy, and the investigation handled by the local magistrate.

Characters and plot details from the original Pride and Prejudice are developed in this sequel, sometimes in surprising ways, as when Darcy becomes jealous of Elizabeth’s attention to Wickham.

Darcy’s snobbish aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, is there to be snarky about the other characters and, as played by Sarah Berger, seems to be a prototype for Lady Bracknell.

There’s also a focus on the servants at Pemberley and a readiness to give them inner lives, something which didn’t unduly trouble Jane Austen. An attractive set (Sean Cavanagh) suggests the comforts of a great house against a pastoral backdrop. All looks idyllic but as Elizabeth — an engaging turn by newcomer Jamie-Rose Duke — muses, there is a world of violence and destruction always lying in wait.

As well as murder and intrigue, there is dancing and music, used to signal mood and provide pauses in the action.

Altogether, this new production from will please both Austenites and fans of crime fiction — often, I suspect, the same people.

l Death Comes to Pemberley is at the Mill at Sonning until Saturday, June 28. For more information, call the box office on 0118 969 8000 or visit millatsonning.com

Philip Gooden