Chloe Wade will play Mary Bennet in the UK premiere of Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, heading a company of eight for Park Theatre's Christmas show this December.
Chloe Wade, who wrote and toured her own play As SHE Likes It in 2024, takes the title role of Mary Bennet in Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Park Theatre confirmed today as it named the full company and creative team. Screen audiences will know her from Emmerdale (ITV), Doctors (BBC) and Upgraded (Amazon Prime Video), and she also runs her own outfit, Chloe Wade Productions. The play opens in Park200 at Park Theatre on 2 December 2026 and runs until 10 January 2027, with the press performance on 8 December.
She is joined by Keaton Guimarães-Tolley (Mother Courage and Her Children at Shakespeare's Globe) as Arthur de Bourgh, Nadi Kemp-Sayfi (Sherlock Holmes at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre) as Elizabeth Darcy, Jack Michael Stacey (Netflix's Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story) as Fitzwilliam Darcy, Cash Holland (A Raisin in the Sun at the Lyric Hammersmith) as Jane Bingley, George Rowlands (the touring An Inspector Calls) as Charles Bingley, Kara Lynch (the film We Live in Time) as Lydia Wickham and Yasmine Meaden (Netflix's The Crown) as Anne de Bourgh.
The play by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, which Park Theatre first announced in August, takes the characters of Pride and Prejudice to a family Christmas at the Darcys' Pemberley estate. There the bookish middle sister Mary, long cast as the dutiful one, sees a different future open up when Lord Arthur de Bourgh turns up unexpectedly.
Park Theatre is producing with Adam Blanshay Productions, reuniting the partnership behind Dracapella, the venue's hit Christmas show last year. Gunderson and Melcon's comedy reaches London after a sold-out run in Chicago.
Sarah Meadows directs, with lighting design by Jodie Underwood, sound design by Matt Huxley and movement direction by Christina Fulcher. Casting is by Sarah-Jane Price, and the stage management team is Ann Bailey and Ciara Pigeon.
Producer Adam Blanshay said: “We're thrilled to have Chloe joining us as Mary Bennet. She brings a wonderful intelligence, wit and individuality to the role, and I think audiences will really connect with her interpretation of a character who has spent so long in the shadows of her more famous sisters.”
Previews of Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley run on 2-3 December. The running time is 2 hours 30 minutes including an interval, and the production is recommended for ages 12 and over.
Park Theatre's second Christmas show is A Dickens of a Christmas, a world premiere from the award-winning company Maybe You Like It, co-written and co-directed by Caleb Barron and Ellie Jay Cooper. Instead of another A Christmas Carol, it gathers some of Dickens's lesser-known festive tales, among them goblins in a church tower showing a messenger his future and a professor who strikes a deal with a ghost to forget his past, with the company playing multiple roles as Christmas Eve counts down to midnight. It plays the smaller Park90 from 15 December 2026 to 9 January 2027, with its press performance on 18 December.
“We're looking forward to welcoming audiences to Park Theatre for two very different Christmas treats this year,” said artistic director Jez Bond. “It's a joy to bring these productions together under one roof, and we hope audiences will join us for a little Christmas magic.”
Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley is booking now at Park Theatre from 2 December 2026 to 10 January 2027, and A Dickens of a Christmas from 15 December 2026 to 9 January 2027.
