Tom Stoppard's 1995 Play Finally Sees a New York City Premiere, Courtesy of Alter Ego A PASSAGE ON INDIA On a sultry afternoon in 1930 in the Indian city of Jummapur, the portrait painter Nirad Das explains the essence of art to his subject, the English poet Flora Crewe. "A painting must have its rasa, which is not the painting exactly," he tolls her. "Rasa is what you must feel when you see a painting or hear music; it is the emotion which the artist must arouse in you." * It's an odd conversation for the central characters in a Tom Stoppard play, odder still that the scene should serve as ...
