Tom Stoppard, "India Ink" ACT Carey Perloff Artistic Director SF 01/15/2015

Brilliant theater.  Really enjoyable.  I missed this last fall when it was revisited last fall in New York City at Roundabout Theater company, now brought to SF in this production.  The story of a poet, Flora Crewe, and the painter, Nirad Das, who paints Flora's portait while she is writing her poetry which served as the crux of the play for Tom Stoppard.  He and Carey Perloff pruned the play to make it relevant to an American audience, and revised the ending.  They decided to keep the essence of the romance rather than deal with the politics of the Raj.   Stoppard is "aware of the whole context of a production, how changes in world view might affect an audience' perception of a play, and how the benefit of time can reveal better ways to tell a story, says Perloff.."  Stoppard is famous for revising bits of his plays according to venue.  He and I talked once at a benefit brunch held in Philadelphia; I had returned from Russia and he was writing about Russia.  

Nice interplay, besides the humor and wit, of Stoppard, between the present looking back at what happened in history and then the reliving of that history.  Enjoyed it immensely, and so glad to do a catch up, having missed it in NYC.

Anyone who loves India and its culture and foods and literatures and mythologies and art will like this play.   

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