>Kombo the mzungu at 12:03, 10 May 2020

2020-05-10T12:03:21Z

New page

{{italic title}}
'''''In the Native State''''' is a [[radio play]] by [[Tom Stoppard]]. First broadcast by the [[BBC]] in 1991<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Sondheim Guide|title=A Tom Stoppard Bibliography|url=http://www.sondheimguide.com/Stoppard/radio.html#Native}}</ref> it was later adapted by Stoppard into the stage play ''[[Indian Ink]]''.

The production was first broadcast on [[BBC Radio Three]] on 20 April 1991. It was directed by [[John Tydeman]] and starred [[Felicity Kendal]] and [[Peggy Ashcroft]]. It was Dame Peggy's last dramatic performance<ref>''Radio Times''; August 1992</ref> and [[Saeed Jaffrey]] played the role of the Rajah.

The original production was broadcast again after the death of John Tydeman in 2020 preceded by a tribute from Tom Stoppard.<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=Drama on 3 |url=https://www.radiotimes.com/radio-programme/e/k9g9zh/drama-on-3--drama-on-3-in-the-native-state-by-tom-stoppard/ |magazine=Radio Times |access-date=2020-05-06}}</ref>

==Plot==
The play takes place in two timelines. In 1930 (the year of Gandhi's [[Salt March]]) Flora Crewe ([[Felicity Kendal]]), a young poet with a somewhat scandalous reputation, travels to India for her health, where she delivers a series of lectures on British literary society. She meets an Indian painter, Nirad Das, and agrees to sit for a portrait. Meanwhile in contemporary England another young Indian painter, Anish, the son of Nirad, visits Mrs Eleanor Swan ([[Peggy Ashcroft]]), the sister of Flora Crewe. Eleanor spent much of her life in India before independence, and is deeply attached to it. She and Anish clash over interpretation of Indian history and untangle the relationship of Flora and Nirad.

The title contains a pun on "native", meaning one of the [[princely state|states of India]] with its own ruler, or nudity. (The original portrait was never completed. However a second portrait by Nirad Das of Flora in the nude was discovered after their deaths. Although unauthorized, Flora had suggested the work, and enthusiastically approved the result.)

==Editions==
*''In the Native State''. London: Faber, 1991 {{ISBN|0-571-16474-9}}
* ''Tom Stoppard Radio Plays,'' (CD) London: British Library, 2012 {{ISBN|978-0712351232}}
** [http://bufvc.ac.uk/reviews/tom-stoppard-radio-plays Review] at the [[British Universities Film & Video Council]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Tom Stoppard}}

[[Category:Plays by Tom Stoppard]]
[[Category:British radio dramas]]
[[Category:Plays set in India]]
[[Category:English-language literature]]
{{BBC-radio-stub}}

In the Native State - Revision history

>Kombo the mzungu at 12:03, 10 May 2020