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

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 absurdityNia DaCosta, known for her satirical horror Candyman 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.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. Continue reading...

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