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Theatrical performances are the chief entertainment in Burma; the Burmese as a nation delight in plays-operatic, tragic, opera bouffe and ballets, such as the "Han Pwe," when a number of young girls, all dressed as royalties, posture and dance with extreme grace; and as their training is perfect, the entertainment evokes unqualified applause. So interested and absorbed do the audience become in long drawn-out dramatic performances, with interludes of dancing and singing, that they will bring their bedding, and not merely remain all night but several nights-according as the play may hold them! As a rule, the background is a palace, and the plot concerns the love story of a prince and princess, which is interrupted by all manner of vicissitudes-some grotesque, others of genuine pathos; to these the accompaniment of soft, wailing Burmese music is admirably adapted.
Po Sine, the greatest actor in Burma-an Eastern "star"-had recently returned to Rangoon from a prolonged tour, and his admirers, who numbered thousands, were all agog to see and welcome him.