Indian Ink

About the show

Bath favourite Felicity Kendal returns in the first major revival for thirty years of one of Tom Stoppard's most nostalgic plays.

“If you don’t start learning to take you’ll never be shot of us. Nothing else counts. It’s your country, and we’ve got it. Everything else is bosh.”

1930, India. Flora Crewe, a noted Bloomsbury Group poet, undertakes a journey through India for her health. Free-spirited, she unsettles most people she meets, but secretly captivates Nirad Das, a handsome Indian painter.

1980s England. Flora’s sister, Mrs Swan, is visited by an American biographer trying to uncover exactly what took place on the trip – and then Das’ son appears in her garden with a painting of Flora by his father – a nude...

Satirising the self-importance of both academia and the ruling class, Tom Stoppard’s Indian Ink is an evocative meditation on art and love, exploring how creativity can bridge even the most profound cultural barriers.

This is the first major revival of Indian Ink since 1995, when Felicity Kendal created the role of Flora Crewe. She now returns to play Mrs Swan in Jonathan Kent’s new production, his first collaboration with Tom Stoppard.