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Review: Indian Ink, Theatre Royal Bath – ‘Gentle, tender and beautiful, with excellent performances’
“Close one of life’s many circles”, says the painter as he asks permission to sketch an older woman, after they discuss his father painting her sister, many moons ago.
The late Tom Stoppard’s Indian Ink is a play about life’s many circles – and about the energy that creates them: rasa, a Sanskrit word for the essence, or emotion, of a work of art.
Jonathan Kent directs this contemplative piece of work beautifully, with a cast and technical team who do it real justice.
But be ready – this is not a high drama full of thrilling jeopardy, nor is it a searing commentary on Empire (although there are digs and sharp elbowings aplenty). No – the rasas of this play are perhaps tranquillity and wonder – because what Kent gives us here is a thing of tender, barely moving beauty, which leaves just a gentle, quizzical scent in the air.
Irvine Iqbal and Ruby Ashbourne Serkis in Indian Ink
So: what happens? We are given the top and the tail of one story, as though it is two.
First, chronologically, we have Flora, beautifully played by Ruby Ashbourne Serkis. She is an energetic, happy, thoughtful and wise young poet in 1930. She does not take herself too seriously and is adored by the artistic elite back in London.
Flora has a serious lung condition and decides to interpret her doctor’s prescription of warm outdoor air as a direction to head to India. She chooses “native India” and not the British Raj. There, she forms a close relationship with Nirad Das (the hugely watchable Gavi Singh Chera), a painter, whom she repeatedly urges to be himself, “less Indian”, and less deferential to Englishness.
Ruby Ashbourne Serkis and Gavi Singh Chera
Chera and Serkis give us the production’s beating heart. Their relationship is hard to define, and appears, on one level, to be a meeting of souls. Certainly, it echoes down the years, as we see in the ‘tail’ of the story.
In the present day (more or less), Flora’s baby sister Eleanor Swan – played by Felicity Kendall – is an old woman. Eleanor is visited by a biographer and Das’s son: one wanting to take information about Flora – whose poems became Great Works after her death – and the other bringing insight.
Felicity Kendal and Aaron Gill
We move between the two – top and tail – seamlessly. The story unfolds, but not completely. History is filled in – we hear of partition and independence, of deaths, posthumous fame, marriage, and war. But we do not – and cannot – know everything about a life.
Does it work? It’s certainly beautiful. The set (Leslie Travers), music (Kuljit Bhamra), lighting (Peter Mumford), sound (Christopher Shutt) and costume (Nicky Shaw) are outstanding. The cast are excellent, and the direction is ideal. But as I said before, know that you are going in for a slow-burner. It isn’t dramatic; it’s a ‘contemplation’ – like watching raindrops fall on the lake, sending out ripples that finally meet.
Felicity Kendal and Ruby Ashbourne Serkis
Indian Ink is at Theatre Royal Bath on February 10-14 at 7.30pm, with additional 2.30pm matinee shows on Thursday and Saturday. Visit www.theatreroyalbath.org.uk for tickets.
All photos: Johan Persson
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