‘Indian Ink’ – Actor Gavi Singh Chera on Stoppard art & romance play with Felicity Kendal
The leading actor is currently appearing in Tom Stoppard’s play, ‘Indian Ink’ and talks to acv about his role and his background in acting…
Please note the interview was conducted before Tom Stoppard’s demise on November 29 2025
By Suman Bhuchar
IN THE PLAY, it is suggested that the fictional painter character Nirad Das is a love interest of Flora Crewe – a free spirited 35-year-old poet and part of the Bloomsbury set, who comes to Jummapur – a small fictional town in India during the 1930s to give a talk at the Theosophical Society. This is a 19th century British founded organisation that believed in bridging a gap between Eastern Spirituality and Western Rationalism and was influential in literary and artistic circles (The Bloomsbury set) in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th century.
www.asianculturevulture.com asked if Gavi Singh Chera if the play was similar to EM Forster’s novel ‘A Passage to India’ (1924) but he declined to comment.
However, in the play, Stoppard has cleverly alluded to the novel – when Flora asks Das if he is like Dr Aziz, the central protagonist in ‘A Passage to India’(1924).
Chera explains that the story is set in two periods – 1930s and 1980s, which both happen at the same time on the stage which is split into two sections.
“It’s a meeting of minds. They are inspired by each other and slowly something romantic happens.
“However Nirad cannot assume anything,” Chera asserted.
It’s the height of the British Raj and interactions between the British and the Indians are very strictly limited.
“There is a proud sensitive depth to Nirad, which is something contradictory and complex.
“He is aware of the world he is in and there is a chemistry between him and Flora but what does it mean?”
“He loves European paintings and literature and he wants Britain to get out of India, but he is equally cruel to his servant and he’s human.”
They ponder on philosophy, Eastern and Western art.
Nirad is also into Rasa (the word means ‘juice’ or ‘essence’ but it describes Indian aesthetics or emotions evoked by a particular work) and Indian spirituality and texts, Chera explained.
Das’s son, Anish and Flora’s younger sister, Eleanor Swan and an American teacher and aspiring writer Eldon Pike are the other important characters in this play.
Pike hopes to write a book on Flora and is researching the writer’s life in the 1980s.
Felicity Kendal is a name many people will recognise.
Meeting Felicity (Kendal) was a high point, Chera confessed.
“Tom Stoppard wrote it for her. He used to be her lover.”
The play was originally performed in 1995 and ran at the Aldwych Theatre London and Felicity Kendal played the part of Flora Crewe.
In this revival at Hampstead Theatre, she now plays the part of Eleanor Swan (who is a much older character).
Chera hasn’t seen the seminal 1975 television comedy series, ‘The Good Life’, which turned Kendal into a household name, but he has been hearing about her growing up in India and coincidentally he went to Shimla and visited the Gaiety Theatre where her family performed.
Her father, Geoffrey and mother Laura were renowned actors who ran a theatre company, Shakespeareana, which toured India performing Shakespeare plays during the 1940s and 1950s. (Incidentally, Stoppard dedicated the script of the play “to the memory of Laura Kendal”).
“I have some amazing pictures of Gaiety theatre – the Shimla theatre is so British with a proscenium arch and it gave me an insight into British India,” Chera enthused.
He said it was his first visit to India and he went in advance of doing this play because he didn’t want to do it not knowing India.
He also went to Amritsar and the Golden Temple as his family is Punjabi.
“‘Indian Ink’ has a huge nostalgia to it but it is also the story of two sisters and deals with death and grief, who we are and about British colonial rule in India.”
It’s a political play in the sense that Nirad is an Indian Nationalist (and against British rule and campaigning for Independence) and that is a huge part of Das in the 1930s – but as an audience, we are watching the play through Flora’s eyes and she knows very little about the Salt March and politics of the day”, he outlined.
The Salt March was organised by Mahatma Gandhi to bring to attention the taxes all Indians had to pay under the British – it rallied many to the cause of Indian Independence.
“These characters are dead and Pike is like a detective who wants to do a whodunit on who painted Flora Crewe, why she went to India, so in the play, what happens to the characters is slowly revealed. The show is staged naturalistically, and Tom Stoppard’s writing is slightly heightened with long sentences and has the energy of the characters’ thoughts.”
Chera is constantly reaching out for excellence in his craft and he has been acting for a long time. He was born in Croydon and raised in Mitcham, and then Surrey and is from a working-class background.
He had singing lessons when he was young and aged 15, joined the Playing Up Course, which is part of the National Youth Theatre REP and got experience of performing in several plays.
His first professional job was in ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’ (2015) playing Rahul Waghekar at the National Theatre (NT), Southbank.
Later, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) graduating in 2020 and continued to perform appearing in several plays including ‘The Cherry Orchard’ (a Chekov classic adapted by Vinay Patel), ‘Our Generation’ at the NT & Chichester Festival Theatre – Alecky Blythe’s verbatim play crafted from interviews with 12 young people across five years and ‘Pins and Needles’ at Kiln Theatre, London. (Acv has covered some of these plays – link below).
Playing Nirad Das propels Chera into the forefront of lead roles, while prior to this he has been cast as a “sensitive young man”.
Listing
‘Indian Ink’ runs at the Hampstead Theatre until 31 January and then Theatre Royal Bath from 10 -14 February
Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage London NW3 3EU
https://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/whats-on/2025/indian-ink/
Theatre Royal Bath, Sawclose, Bath BA1 1 ET
https://www.theatreroyal.org.uk/events/indian-ink
Review
‘Indian Ink’ – Stoppard play is of a different time… – asianculturevulture.com
Previously
The Cherry Orchard – https://asianculturevulture.com/the-cherry-orchard-reimagined-as-a-family-space-odyssey-video-interview-with-writer-vinay-patel-review/
‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’ – some stories have dropped off since we changed site hosts. We are looking to restore
