SHAKESPEARE IN JAVA

Southland Times, Issue 23347, 3 November 1937, Page 8

SHAKESPEARE IN JAVA

INVITATION TO KATHARINE CORNELL President J. Ph. van Hasselt of The Bond van Kunstkringen of Java has invited Katharine Cornell and her company to appear in Batavia, Sourabaya, Bandoeng and Semarang if she makes her world tour next year. It is believed that Miss Cornell will be the first foreign actress to visit Java with her own company of players and the first player to present Shakespeare in English in that country. The Bond van Kunstkringen is a non-profit-making organization which has its own theatres where it gives concerts by internationally famous musicians and produces plays acted by its own members. It also sponsors art exhibitions and occasional motion pictures. The society is supported by subscriptions from leading Dutch and foreign residents in Java, and is the centre of the cultural life of the country. Miss Cornell has also been invited to visit Bali to see the native dancers and hear the native musicians. Due to the wisdom of the Dutch, who own the island, Bali is as nearly unspoiled as it is possible for any place to be after it once is made accessible to tourists. The .Bali Hotel presents two programmes of dancing and music each week for its guests by perhaps the most expert and technically accomplished, natives, but probably even more interesting are the Balinese who dance and play, not for foreigners, but for their own entertainment or in the religious ceremonies in their temples. To. witness these rites a visitor must be introduced by one of the few white people who live in Bali and are friendly with the natives. Through one of these residents the opportunity has been offered to Miss Cornell to see what few white people have seen and what perhaps inevitably will disappear in time despite the present precaution taken by the Dutch Government to prevent foreign influence in Bali.