There is something especially moving about seeing Tom Stoppard’s ‘Indian Ink’ at Theatre Royal Bath, as Felicity Kendal steps back into a play which she first appeared in thirty years ago. In a story which deals the passing of time, memories and the truth of the past, we are indeed seeing life imitate art.
The play is structured around two interwoven timelines. In 1930s India, Flora Crewe, a poet associated with the Bloomsbury set, travels for her health and finds herself navigating the social codes of the British colonial world. Her presence unsettles those around her, not through rebellion for its own sake, but through her independence, curiosity and refusal to conform.
During her stay, Flora meets Nirad Das, an Indian painter who agrees to paint her portrait. What begins as a formal artistic arrangement gradually becomes more layered, revealing an unspoken but unmistakable emotional connection. Their relationship sits at the centre of the play, shaped by attraction, misunderstanding, cultural difference and the constraints of the time.
Running alongside this is the 1980s storyline in England. Here, Flora’s sister, Mrs Swan, is visited by a persistent American biographer attempting to piece together what “really” happened during the India trip. Their questions, theories and assumptions provide much of the play’s humour, but also expose the limits of second-hand interpretation.
Kendal originated the role of Flora Crewe in 1995, and now returns as the older Mrs Swan, lending the play an added layer of nostalgia and emotional depth that feels entirely earned rather than indulgent.
The drama sharpens when Das’s son appears with a painting of Flora that challenges the polite academic narratives being constructed. The portrait forces characters and audience to reconsider ideas of memory and artistic truth.
Ruby Ashbourne Serkis gives a luminous performance as the young Flora, capturing her wit, warmth and defiant intelligence, while Gavi Singh Chera brings a quiet intensity and dignity to Nirad Das. Their scenes together are beautifully judged, charged with longing and mutual respect across a cultural divide.
As Mrs Swan, Kendal is wonderfully devastating, with her performance delivering humour and emotional control, suggesting decades of memory held carefully in place.
Director Jonathan Kent allows the play’s ideas to breathe, trusting Stoppard’s language and the ensemble to do the heavy lifting. The design work is quietly evocative rather than showy, with shifts in time and place handled seamlessly, allowing the audience to drift easily between continents and decades.
For all its sharp satire of academia and empire, this is ultimately a play about love, art and the spaces between cultures where something human and lasting can be created. This is a wonderfully stirring and thoughtful production which needs to be seen.
Indian Ink runs at the Theatre Royal Bath to Saturday 14 February. You can order your tickets here.
