Indian Ink

Stoppard's rich and moving meditation on art and love, set against one of the great shifts of history, as India regained its independence from the grip of the British Empire.

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.


Flora Crewe, a noted young Bloomsbury Group poet travelling India in 1930, has her portrait painted by a local artist, Nirad Das. More than fifty years later, the artist's son visits Flora's sister, Mrs Swan, in London while Flora's would-be biographer is following a cold trail in India.

Indian Ink was first performed at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, and opened at the Aldwych Theatre, London, in 1995. The play was revived at Hampstead Theatre, London, in December 2025.