As we open a new production of Tom Stoppard’s Indian Ink at Hampstead Theatre we thought it was important to acknowledge what all of you already know – that Tom Stoppard, probably the greatest playwright of the last 60 years, passed away on Saturday 29 November. This will be the last production of one of his plays in which he had a direct hand – indeed, had things been otherwise, he would have been sitting amongst the audience on many of its performances.

Tom was a great friend to Hampstead Theatre and he liked that we’re mainly dedicated to new work. In fact three years ago, when the Arts Council removed Hampstead’s grant completely, he became our most vocal supporter, determined that we should find a way to continue despite the cut. And here we still are, in no small measure thanks to him.

He was greatly loved by everyone in the building because, as well as being a great playwright, he was a delightful man who treated everyone – Box Office, Bar Staff, Ushers, and all of us upstairs in the office – as if we were his equal. And that could be a little intimidating, of course, because, well, we simply weren’t a great playwright like him.

This is the fourth of his plays that we have produced across the holiday season over the last four years – Hapgood, Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Invention of Love and now Indian Ink – and each has had the singular merit of being the most successful play in Hampstead’s history, remaining so until we produced the next.

Whilst Tom wrote for the screen he was primarily a creature of the theatre – he loved actors and he loved to be in rehearsals and inside the process of putting on and performing plays. Across a very full lifetime he wrote so many extraordinary and extraordinarily successful plays that he single-handedly made an enormous contribution to keeping the tradition of theatre alive.

His legacy is astounding and I have no doubt that it will endure. At Hampstead the continuing popularity of his work allows us to support the risks that we take with younger and emerging playwrights.

And, of course, there is no better way to celebrate this extraordinary artist than by presenting one of his plays, Indian Ink.