“Director Andrew McGinn has allowed the love story to bloom and shine throug
Photos by Ken Holmes
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rather than getting mired down in the political and historical aspects of the play. And the love story he’s portrayed is lovely but never forced or unseemly. And when portrayed with such heart from his wonderful ensemble and coupled with a beautiful lighting design from Richard Schaefer it’s one that you’ll carry with you long after you leave the theater.
Francis and Khanna are stunning in their respective roles. Both very honest and real with distinct characters and their chemistry together is sublime and fits in with the tone of the period perfectly. Campbell is equal parts touching and hilarious as a force of nature who doesn’t take kindly to people telling tales about her family. Abernethy too has some wonderfully funny moments as he searches with obsessive devotion for any shred of information on the relationship. Gangwani is quite sweet as the young man just looking for the truth about his father. And I have to mention fantastic turns from Frank Lawler as the awkward British suitor to Flora and Gurvinder Pal Singh as the manipulative Indian guide to Pike.” -Jay Irwin, Broadway World
“A narrative this complexly rich makes it difficult for any performer to take over, but Caitlin Frances does get more front-and-center time than anyone else. She takes over anytime the lights come up on her, evincing a tough but sensitive woman, flirty and audacious, and confident on the surface, but all too fallible on the inside. She’s introduced to Nirad Das, (Dhiraj Khanna), an artist who wants to paint her. But between his English, her poetry, and his canvas, they fall into complicated miscommunications.” -Andrew Hamlin, Northwest Asian Weekly
“McGinn and company exploit the depth of the Center Theatre stage to gracefully delineate, and merge, past and present. A rolling bed covered in filmy white drapes offers semishrouded glimpses of female nudity, sensuously establishing a cross-cultural intimacy as the play develops. Scenes where the vibrant but physically fragile Flora lowers her guard and opens to Das, who has much more to give than the proper British official courting her, are some of the best.
Among the Anglo/Indian cast, Campbell is a deliciously peppery, reflective Eleanor, and Gangwani appeals as a son on a mission.” – Misha Berson, The Seattle Times
“In India she hobnobs with the English gentry and Hindu royalty and becomes caught up in the tensions of the times. The attractive Flora has many admirers including Nirad Das, a painter who, of course, paints Flor in a most provocative manner…There’s a wealth of ideas here and those ideas are presented in the elegant Stoppard prose. ” -Nancy Worssam