Indian Ink by Tom Stoppard, Hampstead Theatre, London | 03 – 31 December, 2025 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by William Russell

Photo credit: Johan Persson

Indian Ink

by Tom Stoppard

Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, London NW3 | 03 – 31 December, 2025             

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by William Russell

“Felicity Kendall magnificent in Jonathan Kent splendid revival”.

Press night happened to be on the day of Tom Stoppard's funeral which added a poignancy to this beautifully performed play about the death of a poet in India, about the Raj – it is set in the 1930s – and love, not least because Felicity Kendall, who created the role of Flora in the original radio play here plays her older sister Eleanor Swan. It is a magnificent performance, quietly played and she creates a formidable matron resisting the crass American editing her sister's letters – clearly intent on writing her sister's biography which is the last thing she wants – while entertaining to tea the son of the Indian who painted Flora and was also in love with her. There are letters, lost paintings, misunderstandings, and the world of the Raj with the princes, the administrators, the British exploiting everything yet changing the society they have found is there with in the background it's end as Gandhi is engaged on his Salt March which eventually led to partition. There are riots on the streets away from the flower filled gardens.

Flora Crewe,a beautifully judged performance from Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, is a poet, a free spirit in her early thirties and a Communist, a person of interest for those in authority, who has come to India on holiday and to address a local Indian society. She meets a young Indian painter who falls in love with her and paints her, but the painting is lost, as is another painting by Modigliani. Flora knows people and loves where she wishes/ She also meets the local Raja, and again just what happens is left unanswered, but the British who run things in the state are curious – while Flora could not care less; Meanwhile in tandem we have her sister years later resisting the crass would be biographer, Eldon Pike played by Donald Sage Mackay, who is intent on writing the unwanted biography and finding out about the lost paintings and love affairs, while serving colonial teas to the painter's son who has come to visit. Flora and the painter Nirad Das played by Gavi Singh Chera, splendidly edgy and conflicted between being an Indian and liking all things British, embark on something, maybe an affair, maybe a friendship, possibly love on his side, while the world around them is changing. The set by Leslie Travers is beautiful, a deep inky blue box into which cottages and lush country gardens fall, and director Jonathan Kent has overcome the problems the play, with its different world and conflicting timelines, and indeed its radio play origins, perfectly. Last done 30 years ago this is a revival that does the play justice and has at its heart that achingly perfect one from Kendall who at the end has to stand by her sister's grave suggesting one change be made and the word poet added to the inscription.

Cast

Sagar Arya – Coomaraswami

Ruby Ashbourne Serkis – Flora Crewe

Mark Carlisle – Resident

Neil D'Souza – Dilip

Tom Durrant Pritchard – David Durance

Aaron Gill – Anish Das

Irvine Iqbal – Rajah/Politician

Felicity Kendall – Mrs Swan

Donald Sage Mackay - Eldon Pike

Evan Milton – Englishman/Eric

Bethany Muir – Englishwoman/Nell

Sushant Shekhar – Nazrul/Other Servants

Gavi Singh Chera – Nirad Das

Creatives

Director – Jonathan Ken

Set Designer – Leslie Travers

Costume Designer – Nicky Shaw.

Lighting Designer -Peter Mumford.

Sound Designer – Christopher Shutt.

Composer – Kujit Bhamra.

Choreographer - Jack Murphy.