Photo: Tero Ahonen

Red Nose Company

Red Nose Company:

Timo Ruuskanen
Tuukka Vasama

Red Nose Company’s performances are skillful, intelligent, groovy and visually stunning. In their performances the company is excited to explore the humanity, the comedy and also the poetry of the stage. Red Nose Company will entertain and make the audience laugh but at the same time the actors still manage to tackle difficult subjects with a clownlike astonishment. The company’s performances have addressed, among other things, active feminism, domestic violence, racism, European identity, political populism and hate speech.

At the heart of Red Nose Company’s live performances is a connection, a special feeling of togetherness no matter the size of the audience. The actors love to meet different kinds of audiences and take their shows to all kinds of locations. A new circumstance is always an artistic possibility!

Currently there are six shows running, both classical plays and new scripts. For adults, the repertoire consists of Don Quixote, Babylon, Trench Road and Red Line, for families Frankenstein and Emperor´s New Clothes. There are versions available in four different languages.

Red Nose Company has also expanded their repertoire to live stream and online performances which have been popular especially with school groups. In the online performances the actors can interact with about 50–100 audience members. These people can be described as the audience with front row seats. At the same time more people can watch with a little less interaction, and therefore there is really no real limit to the amount of the spectators in online performances.

Timo Ruuskanen holds a degree in acting from the Theatre Academy Helsinki. He’s based in Helsinki and does theatre, television and movies. He has acted both in big theatres (the Finnish National Theatre, Helsinki City Theatre, Espoo City Theatre etc.) as well as in a number of theatre groups.

He specializes in clownery, improvisation and puppetry and also teaches them. He has also written and directed (several) plays.

Tuukka Vasama holds a degree in acting from Theatre Acedemy Helsinki. He specializes in clownery, music, poetry, drama and live art.

His monologue performances have been awarded in Germany (Thespis Monodrama Festival), Lithuania (Monobaltija Festival) and Finland. In 2018, he received the Artist of the Year Award from the City of Helsinki. He is a frequent guest on the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle’s radio programs. Besides the big city theatres, Tuukka Vasama has always worked with the independent theatres, with a focus on acting, directing and producing.