City theatre group offers hospital clowning course to heal through laughter

Laughter, it is said, is the best medicine. It is even proven scientifically to ease one’s pain and anxiety. Harnessing the power of a good laugh, clown care, which involves trained clowns working with the doctors and patients to help reduce their stress, is a popular concept in many countries, including the US, the UK, Europe, Canada, Israel, South Africa, among others. Chennai-based The Little Theatre has been attempting to bring to light the art of clowning as a therapeutic means in several Asian countries like India, Malaysia and South Korea.

Currently, about eight hospital clowns trained by The Little Theatre visit the state-run Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children, Egmore, every week to help children heal faster through a dose of laughter. In order to popularise medical clowning and to take its benefits to more patients, the theatre group is offering a course in hospital clowning during third week of January. The first-of-its-kind course in the country will be held by the theatre group’s B Krishnakumar, a popular theatre professional, and Dr Rohini Rau, a medical doctor who is India’s first medical clown, and also an actor-dancer at The Little Theatre.

“Hospital clowning is still in a very nascent state in our country. In Australia, Israel and a few other countries, hospital clowning is compulsory to help patients recover faster. With no psychological care available at most hospitals, clowning can help healing immensely. Only after taking up a workshop offered by New York-based hospital clown Hillary Chaplain, we understood its benefits fully. We have adapted clowning to an Indian set-up for children and adult patients to relate to,” says Krishnakumar. Hospital clowning doesn’t just mean putting on a mask, but requires a lot of preparation and improvisation, he asserts. “Besides clowning, there is also storytelling, and playing games with children in paediatrics wards,” he adds.

Through the activities, coupled with hearty laughs, hospital clowns are trained to create psychological weapons for patients to recover, while humanising doctors, adds Krishnakumar. “The course is not just for theatre actors and doctors, but also for anyone who is empathetic,” he remarks.

There’s only so much that medicine can do in healing a person, and creative arts therapies can be highly beneficial, says Dr Rohini, who works as a senior resident (internal medicine) at a city hospital. “The course will be the first one in India. Our aim is to ensure that morepeople benefit from clowning. Mental health is just as important as medicine, and clowning can help with such effects,” she asserts.