Hedda review – Ibsen meets Downton Abbey in Nia DaCosta’s exotic rendering of classic play

<p>High society in 1950s Britain is the setting in which Tessa Thompson’s free-spirited but manipulative Hedda marries for money. Cue jaded pleasure and absurdity</p><p>Nia DaCosta, known for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/aug/25/candyman-review-nia-dacosta-jordan-peele-horror">her satirical horror Candyman</a> from 2021, has now created an exotic melodrama; it is ridiculous, intense, despairingly sexual, inspired by Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler and Chekhov’s dictum about the gun produced in act one. It’s a feverish variation on a theme, with twists on gender and racial difference.</p><p>The action is transplanted from Ibsen’s Norway to a country estate in 1950s England, which makes for some suitably bizarre cod-British voice work – although the excellent Kathryn Hunter has one resoundingly authentic speech as Bertie, a punk Mrs Patmore figure below stairs, cheerfully pouring scorn on her employers in the vast Downtonesque establishment.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/22/hedda-review-ibsen-meets-downton-abbey-in-nia-dacostas-exotic-rendering-of-classic-play">Continue reading...</a>