What Hedda Reveals About the Timelessness of Feminine Rage

What Hedda Reveals About the Timelessness of Feminine Rage

In Nia DaCosta’s vespertine parlor drama Hedda, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s 1890 play Hedda Gabler, Tessa Thompson transfixes in the titular role. The film takes place in 1954 almost exclusively over the course of one evening at a party thrown by the newly wed Hedda who wields literal and figurative weapons for her own personal amusement and potential financial gain. Almost serpentine in her shimmering elegance, Thompson’s Hedda glides from …