Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley hands the sequel to Pride and Prejudice to the sister Austen left on the piano stool, with Chloe Wade as Mary Bennet in the play's UK premiere at Park Theatre from 2 December. Here is everything you need to know before you book.
Every Christmas has a sister who gets overlooked. This one finally gets the play. Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley receives its UK premiere at Park Theatre this December, a festive return to the world of Pride and Prejudice written by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon. It comes to London after a sold-out run in Chicago and fills the venue's larger Park200 auditorium from Wednesday 2 December 2026 to Sunday 10 January 2027.
Park Theatre announced the production in August and named the full company in October. Here is what to know before you book.
Who is starring in Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley?
Chloe Wade plays Mary Bennet, the middle sister whose story this is. Keaton Guimarães-Tolley is Arthur de Bourgh, the unexpected Christmas guest, and Yasmine Meaden plays Anne de Bourgh.
The rest of the family is all here. Nadi Kemp-Sayfi plays Elizabeth Darcy opposite Jack Michael Stacey as Fitzwilliam Darcy, Cash Holland and George Rowlands are Jane and Charles Bingley, and Kara Lynch plays Lydia Wickham. The company's credits take in the Globe (Guimarães-Tolley in Mother Courage and Her Children), Regent's Park Open Air Theatre (Kemp-Sayfi in Sherlock Holmes) and the Lyric Hammersmith (Holland in A Raisin in the Sun), as well as Netflix's Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (Stacey) and The Crown (Meaden).
Spotlight on Chloe Wade
Wade comes to Park Theatre as a writer as well as an actor. She wrote As SHE Likes It and took it on a UK tour in 2024, and since 2022 she has run her own company, Chloe Wade Productions, which is dedicated to bringing overlooked women's stories to the stage. On television she played Joanne Grantham in the BBC's Doctors, and she appears alongside Camila Mendes in the Amazon Prime Video romantic comedy Upgraded.
That background suits this part. Austen gave Mary little more than a few solemn remarks and one song at the piano that went on too long, so whoever plays her has to build a heroine out of a character most readers remember as a joke. The play needs comic timing in the crowded family scenes, then something much quieter once Mary starts to picture a life of her own. Her producers have singled out the intelligence and individuality she brings to the role, and you can judge for yourself when Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley opens on 2 December.
What is Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley about?
The play picks up the Bennets two years after the close of Austen's novel. The family gathers at Pemberley, the Darcys' estate, for Christmas. Elizabeth and Jane have settled into the lives everyone always predicted for them. Mary, the bookish one, is still the sister nobody thinks to ask about.
Then Lord Arthur de Bourgh arrives unexpectedly for the festivities, and Mary finds herself considering a future she had never allowed herself to imagine. The result is a comedy about family roles, who assigns them, and what it takes to rewrite the one you were given. You do not need to know Pride and Prejudice to follow it, though Austen readers will recognise every face at the table.
Who is behind the production?
Sarah Meadows directs. Lighting design is by Jodie Underwood, sound design by Matt Huxley and movement direction by Christina Fulcher, with casting by Sarah-Jane Price.
Park Theatre produces with Adam Blanshay Productions. It is the same partnership behind Dracapella, the venue's Christmas hit last year.
When and where can I see it?
Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley runs in Park200 at Park Theatre in Finsbury Park from Wednesday 2 December 2026 to Sunday 10 January 2027. Previews are on 2-3 December and press night is Tuesday 8 December. Evening performances begin at 7.30pm, with 3pm matinees on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
The running time is 2 hours 30 minutes including an interval, and the play is recommended for ages 12 and over. Tickets currently start at £28.
Three access performances are scheduled, all at 3pm: dementia-friendly on Tuesday 15 December, audio-described on Thursday 17 December and captioned on Saturday 9 January.
What else should I book if I like it?
- A Dickens of a Christmas: Park Theatre's other festive show, in the smaller Park90 from 15 December, gathers some of Dickens's lesser-known Christmas tales, so you can make a double bill of the building's season.
- A Christmas Carol: the other great nineteenth-century Christmas story, now in its tenth year at the Old Vic, with Giles Terera as Scrooge.
- Murder, She Didn't Write: period manners played for laughs, in an improvised country-house whodunnit that returns to the Duchess Theatre on selected Monday nights.
- Fourteen Again: another witty, warm-hearted British evening, a new musical at the Menier Chocolate Factory built from the songs of Victoria Wood.
Looking for more seasonal ideas? See our guide to Christmas shows in London 2026.
