Felicity Kendal as Mrs Swan and Aaron Gill as Anish Das [Johan Persson]
INDIAN INK
Hampstead Theatre
3 stars
Originally written in 1991 as a radio play for Felicity Kendal, Tom Stoppard’s In the Native State was adapted for the stage in 1995 and renamed Indian Ink. This revival, the first Stoppard production since the playwright’s death, inevitably carries added emotional weight.
Told through a dual narrative set in 1930s India and 1980s England, we follow Bloomsbury Group poet Flora Crewe (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis) on her first visit to India. Invited by the Theosophical Society to the fictional Native State of Jummapur, she befriends Nirad Das (Gavi Singh Chera), a charismatic artist who offers to paint her portrait. He adores British literature – Agatha Christie especially – but is less enamoured with colonial rule.
Flora also attracts the attention of Captain David Durance (Tom Durant Pritchard), a colonial officer who professes his romantic interest.
Irvine Iqbal as Rajah and Ruby Ashbourne Serkis as Flora Crewe [Johan Persson]
The second narrative unfolds in 1985. Kendal, who originally played Flora, gives a sensitive performance as Mrs Swan, the poet’s now elderly sister. She is visited by American biographer Eldon Pike (Donald Sage Mackay), whose misreadings of Flora’s life supply much of the humour, and by Das’s son Anish (Aaron Gill).
Their conversations gradually reveal what happened to Flora during her brief time in India, including the truth of her failing health and the literary and sexual freedom that shaped her legacy.
Stoppard explores the contrasting perspectives of colonised and coloniser, and how these influenced attitudes towards art, politics and autonomy. It’s also a poignant meditation on love and grief.
Jonathan Kent’s slightly static staging retains traces of the play’s radio origins, yet his transitions between past and present – aided by Leslie Travers’ set and Peter Mumford’s lighting – are finely judged.
The casting is pitch-perfect, and this feels like a production Stoppard would have proudly endorsed.
Until January 31
hampsteadtheatre.com
