Dardanella (theatre company)

Dardanella was a touring theatre company from the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) established by Willy A. Piedro in 1926. Arising from a background of musical theatre, the troupe focused on realistic stories, both adaptations of foreign works and original stage plays about life in the Indies. Starring Dewi Dja' and Tan Tjeng Bok, the troupe performed original works by Piedro and Andjar Asmara. Popular both in the Indies and abroad, Dardanella dissolved during an international tour after 1936. Several of its members later went into film.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the theatre in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) generally emphasised music, with the dialogue being sung. These early performances were given different names depending on their type, such as bangsawan and komedi stambul. In the mid-1920s companies in the country began adapting more European stylings, with an emphasis on spoken dialogue and a reduction in the amount of music used during the performance; troupes using this new format referred to the genre as toneel, an adaptation of the Dutch word for theatre.

Dardanella was established by Willy A. Piedro (born Willy Klimanoff), a Penang-born actor of Russian descent. His native wife, Dewi Dja' (also spelled Devi), joined as an actor; another early member was Tan Tjeng Bok, an ethnic Chinese keroncong singer who was known for his sword work, Ferry Kock, and Astaman; many of these actors had been in other troupes before. The troupe gave their first performance on 21 June 1926 in Sidoarjo, East Java. They were advertised as a toneel troupe to indicate their affinity for European stage traditions.

Initially the troupe's works were written by Piedro. He adapted numerous Hollywood productions for the stage, including The Mark of Zorro (1920), The Three Musketeers (1921), The Thief of Bagdad (1924), and Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925). These adaptations generally starred Tan Tjeng Bok, who earned the nickname "Douglas Fairbanks of Java" ("Douglas Fairbanks van Java") for his work. Piedro also wrote his own stage plays based on everyday life in the Indies (mostly in Java), such as Roos van Serang, Fatima, and North of Borneo.

...
Wikipedia