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Indian Ink was produced in New York on 30 September 2014 at the Laura Pels Theatre at The Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, directed by Carey Perloff.
The cast was as follows:
| Flora Crewe | Romola Garai |
| Coomaraswami | Ajay Naidu |
| Nazrul | Omar Maskati |
| Eleanor Swan | Rosemary Harris |
| Eldon Pike | Neal Huff |
| Nirad Das | Firdous Bamji |
| Anish Das | Bhavesh Patel |
| David Durance | Lee Aaron Rosen |
| Dilip | Nick Choksi |
| Englishman | Bill Buell |
| Englishwoman | Caroline Lagerfelt |
| Resident | Tim McGeever |
| Rajah/Politician | Rajeev Varma |
| Nell | Brenda Meaney |
| Eric | Philip Mills |
| Set Design by | Neil Patel |
| Lighting by | Robert Wierzel |
| Composer and Sound Design by | Dan Moses Schreier |
CHARACTERS
Flora Crewe
Coomaraswami
Nazrul
Eleanor Swan
Eldon Pike
Anish Das
Nirad Das
David Durance
Dilip
Resident
Englishwoman
Englishman
Rajah/Politician
Nell
Eric
In addition:
Indian Questioner(s)
Club Servant(s)
Rajah’s Servant(s)
The play is set in two periods, 1930 (in India) and mid-1980s (in England and India).
It is not intended that the stage be demarcated between India and England, or past and present. Floor space, and even furniture, may be common. In this respect and in others, the play profited greatly from Peter Wood’s direction. The stage directions generally follow the original production but are not offered as a blueprint for the staging.
T.S.
ACT ONE
Dusk. FLORA sits alone on a moving train. Her suitcase is on the rack above her head. The train is approaching a station. Flora, already speaking, stands to lift down her suitcase. By the end of her first speech, she is on the station platform at Jummapur.
FLORA ‘Jummapur, Wednesday, April the second. Darling Nell, I arrived here on Saturday from Bombay after a day and a night and a day in a Ladies Only, stopping now and again to be revictualled through the window with pots of tea and proper meals on matinee trays, which, remarkably, you hand back through the window at the next station down the line where they do the washing up; and from the last stop I had the compartment to myself, with the lights coming on for me to make my entrance on the platform at Jummapur. The President of the Theosophical Society was waiting with several members of the committee drawn up at a respectful distance, not quite a red carpet and brass band but garlands of marigolds at the ready, and I thought there must be somebody important on the train—’
COOMARASWAMI (Interrupting) Miss Crewe!
FLORA ‘—and it turned out to be me.’
COOMARASWAMI Welcome to Jummapur!
FLORA —’which was very agreeable.’ Thank you!
And as she is garlanded by COOMARASWAMI:
How nice! Are you Mr Coomar …
COOMARASWAMI Coomaraswami! That is me! Is this your only luggage?! Leave it there!
He claps his hands imperiously for assistance, and then shakes hands enthusiastically with Flora.
How do you do, Miss Crewe!
The handshake which begins on the station platform ends on the verandah of the ‘Dak Bungalow’, or guesthouse. The guesthouse requires a verandah and an interior which includes, or comprises, a bedroom. On the verandah is a small table with at least two chairs. There is an electric light, unlit, and an oil lamp, lit. The bedroom contains a bed under a mosquito net, a washstand, a bedside table, an electric fan and a ‘punkah’. There is a door to a bathroom off-stage.