The Far Post: Of fluid borders and sacrificing soldiers

Yuki Ellias' The Far Post is a creative, acute reminder of the tough conditions under which soldiers survive, often lonely, sometimes desperate, hanging on, living precariously, writes Deepa Punjani.

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BORDER areas are fraught places. The soldiers stationed in such places have it even worse. Yuki Ellias' The Far Post is a creative, acute reminder of the tough conditions under which soldiers survive, often lonely, sometimes desperate, hanging on and living precariously.

It is a kind of survival buttressed by the rhetoric of the nation-state but in its ultimate analysis, hopeless and thankless. Each soldier is in a face-off with the enemy soldier on the other side; terribly divided in life, but in death, will they find any redemption?

This is The Far Post's point of departure weaving an atmospheric tale of the afterlife in which two enemy soldiers are redeemed with the help of the 'Postman Aunty', who delivers the post, no matter how extreme the weather or how dangerous the terrain.

In her far post, the Postman Aunty goes about her little daily routines till she is summoned by the spirits of the afterlife. A pet goldfish for company, the Postman Aunty is guided in her journey from life to the afterlife.

Snippets from the postcards and the letters from their families and their loved ones resolve the hostilities between the two soldiers, enemies in life, but united in death, through their shared longings, dashed hopes, and the futility of their youth snuffed out by war and the skirmishes in between.

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Yuki's collaborators on this project are musicians of 'Sofiyum', a band from Sikkim. Mellifluous and melodic, the band performs songs to intersperse the narrative. The songs are powerfully evocative in their description of events.

These are also songs steeped in the culture of the Lepcha people. The choice to use Lepcha with English subtitles instead of performing in English is a thoughtful one and brings an added layer of sensitivity to the cultural ethos underpinning the performance.

Yuki says she met the band in 2018 when they had a show in Chennai. It started with a jam session of a scene that Yuki had written and thus the collaboration grew.

Building on this project for over two years, Yuki says, she began devising it from the time she ordered a mask from Pierre Filliez, a mask-maker from Switzerland. She started out with the mask, a character and then the story.

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The mask of the Postman Aunty is not only captivating but, between Yuki and her co-actor Tapas Boro, the Postman Aunty emerges as a third co-performer in her own right. Yuki's stylistic approach combining mask theatre, puppet theatre, and physical theatre along with live music is very skillful and tastefully done.

To that end, credit also goes to Mati Rajput who did the other masks and designed the props. The use of props is also brilliant as they suitably merge with other props and yet retain their identity.

Along with Sumaiya Merchant's costume design; choreography by Tapas Boro and Neeraj Lohani; sound design and music by Arnob Bal; performance aided by Rathap Lepcha, Pinstock Dechen Lepcha and Rikel Lepcha; the songs created by Mickma Tsering Lepcha, Ongyal Tshering Lepcha and Noel J. Karthak; and the suffused light design by Asmit Pathare, this is a beautiful production in spite of the sombre overtones.

This is also a production that can be suitable for adolescent children and young adults. It is the kind of theatre that young minds can enjoy and learn from. It blends humour and pathos.

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The larger credit goes to the G5A's 'In Residence' programme that creates space for practitioners like Yuki to engage with their ideas and their craft.

The G5A Warehouse in Mumbai has been greatly supportive of artistes, especially those with distinct voices.

With the memory of the Galwan clash not far behind us, The Far Post will remain a relevant and telling piece of theatre that will haunt us much as it did its two dead soldiers.

They found some resolution, but will we?