PERENNIAL audiences favourite Felicity Kendal returns to Bath Theatre Royal in Tom Stoppard’s Indian In, from Tuesday 10th to Saturday 14th February. It is the first major revival of the play more 30 years and comes to Bath after a run at Hampstead Theatre.

In the 1995 production, Felicity Kendal created the role of Flora Crewe. She now returns to play Mrs Swan in director Jonathan Kent’s new production, his first collaboration with Tom Stoppard.

Set in India, in the 1930s, the play follows noted Bloomsbury Group poet Flora Crewe on a journey through India for her health. Free-spirited and without social inhibitions, she unsettles most people she meets, but secretly captivates Nirad Das, a handsome Indian painter.

In 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 Nirad Das’s son appears in Mrs Swan’s garden with a painting of Flora by his father – a nude…

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

Felicity Kendal’s many appearances at Bath include Mrs Warren’s Profession (2009), Relatively Speaking (2012, 2013), Hay Fever (2014), A Room With a View (2016), Noises Off (2022) and the title role in Filumena (2024). Her many television roles include most famously The Good Life (with Richard Briars, Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington< and the light-hearted crime series, Rosemary and Thyme. Her long list of theatre work includes Anything Goes (Barbican); Lettice & Lovage (Menier Chocolate Factory); Amy’s View (Garrick); Waste and The Seagull (both Old Vic); Much Ado About Nothing and Ivanov (both Strand);The Real Thing (Strand); Made in Bangkok and Jumpers (both Aldwych); Arcadia. The Second Mrs Tanqueray. On the Razzle. Othello and Amadeus (all National Theatre); The Norman Conquests and Kean (both Globe); Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (both Regent’s Park).

Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, who was in Grace Pervades at Bath, last summer, plays Flora Crewe. Gavi Singh Chera is Nirad Das, Sagar Arya is Coomaraswami, Mark Carlisle plays the Resident, Neil D’Souza is Dilip, Tom Durant-Pritchard is David Durance, Aaron Gill is Anish Das, Irvine Iqbal plays the Rajah and Politician; other parts are played by Evan Milton, Bethany Muir, Donald Sage Mackay and Sushant Shekhar as Nazrul.

Joining director Jonathan Kent in the creative team is set designer Leslie Travers, costume designer Nicky Shaw, lighting designer Peter Mumford, sound designer Christopher Shutt and composer Kuljit Bhamra.

Photographs by Johan Persson