Dardanella (theatre company)

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.

[4] 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.

[3] He numerous wrote stage plays for the troupe, generally dealing with more serious and mature topics than Piedro; these were in part aimed at the growing intellectual native population.

[7] In 1936 Dardanella went to India to record a film adaptation of Andjar's Dr Samsi, which followed a doctor who was blackmailed after an unscrupulous Indo discovered he had an illegitimate child.

[3][10] Meanwhile, Andjar and Ratna Asmara returned to the Indies, establishing their own troupe named Bollero with Bachtiar Effendi, who had joined Dardanella shortly before its dissolution.

[3][11] In the 1940s numerous former Dardanella actors and personnel entered the film industry, including Andjar and Ratna Asmara,[11] as well as Ferry Kock and his wife Dewi Mada.