A team of Spanish artistes perform in Puri. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Puri, Jan. 27: The adage goes, “laughter is the best medicine”. A team of Spanish performers proved this today with their acts of pure comedy in Puri.

The audience lapped up every performance staged by the Spanish artistes. Through their performances, the artistes tried to create awareness about social and environmental issues without sounding preachy.

Blending fun and art with themes relevant to Puri’s social issues, the team of seven artistes from Spain stagedvarious public performances from January 20 to January 26. “Often we wish to bring about a positive change in the society by reaching out to the people and explaining to them about the different ways they can help. But the impact is not visible unless the medium of the message is interesting,” said Edu, who led the Spanish troupe.

“We used our skills as jokers, performing hilarious tricks and displaying acrobatic skills. These we combined with scripts based on the changes needed here. The crowd simply loved it.”

The team is part of Friends of Orissa, a voluntary organisation of tourists who had come to Orissa many years ago. “More and more people from Spain, especially Madrid, love to come here. We love the city so much that we want to clean it and improve its image,” said Nacho, coordinator of the event.

The artistes performed at various schools, orphanages and public spots, including different parts of the beach with help of local voluntary organisation Bare Foot.

“The objective of the team was to make people laugh, relax and enjoy themselves. The artistes performed on themes like making the beach dirty and then suffering because of it; misbehaving with tourists and then realising the mistake,” said Yugabrata Kar, a member of Bare Foot. “People here have seen foreigners as tourists only. This was a welcome initiative that has created an impact on the local viewers.” The Spanish visitors are part of a circus school in Madrid. They won the hearts of the crowd with their colourful clothes and humorous acts. “The performances were so enjoyable. They made us laugh our hearts out,” said Pranati Mishra, a local resident. “We understood how small acts of ours can make a difference. Their performances were entertaining as well as enlightening,” said Bijay Majhi, a viewer.

The Spanish circus artistes have performed at Varanasi and Calcutta earlier. In Orissa, they have performed at various tribal villages.

“In this life full of pressures, everyone needs some relaxation. So, we perform tomusic and do not use dialogues, so that our gestures are easily understood by audiences everywhere,” said Nadia, an artiste. “We will come back soon to train the local volunteers who have said they want to learn how to make people laugh,” said Edu. The team left for Spain on Thursday.