1941: «...But there is high drama of another kind
for western eyes in the cosmopolitan stream of life that today sweeps along
through the wide, shaded streets of the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.
Here Europeans, Annamites, Siamese, Malaysians and Javanese rub against
swarthy men from the provinces of Tonkin and Souch China. Yellow-robed bonzes
go about their daily business of begging, praying and teaching. Coolies,
bear-
ers and sailors from all the ports of the world swarm along the steep banks
of the restless Megong that flows by the city. ... Manners and customs of
the past and present meet continually in the sights seen along these thoroughfares,
but never inside the theatre. The classical theatre lives only in the past
and like a ghost is seen only after dark.» [more]
