‘Indian Ink’ Is Witty Mockery of Brits

Tom Stoppard’s witty 1995 play Indian Ink takes a romantic look back at India under waning British rule, gently mocking both the British Raj and some of the English-smitten “natives.” There’s a timeless sensuality in the air of the Roundabout Theatre Company’s leisurely, evocative and thoroughly enjoyable New York premiere that opened Tuesday night off-Broadway at the Laura Pels Theatre. An accomplished cast includes the dual treat of Rosemary Harris and Romola Garai, playing sisters connected across time through letters written by Garai’s character 50 years earlier. Stoppard, known for dazzling dramas like Arcadia and The Real Thing, lived as a boy in India for a few years in the mid-1940s, and presents this almost-cozy look at a pivotal time in that nation’s history.