ABSTRACT
Indian Ink Theatre Company, founded by Jacob Rajan and Justin Lewis in 1997, is arguably the most successful international theatre touring company based in Aotearoa New Zealand. As of 2019, six Indian Ink plays have toured to overseas markets including Australia, Singapore, the UK, USA, and India: Krishnan’s Dairy (1997), The Candlestickmaker (2000), The Pickle King (2003), Guru of Chai (2010), Kiss the Fish (2013), and Mrs Krishnan’s Party (2017). The endeavour to sustain the company through these theatrical exports has involved changes in target markets, alongside changes in the identities expressed within their plays, moving away from a transnational interplay between New Zealand and India to a global orientation. Indian Ink provides a study of how a theatre company, operating within the specific context of (post)colonial New Zealand, practises hybridity in order to make highly portable plays to appeal within both their immediate locality and the global theatre marketplace.
