“'Pants' Labyrinth,” May 27 through June 5

Friday, May 27, through Sunday, June 5

The Mockingbird on Main, 320 North Main Street, Davenport IA

When last we encountered the slightly zonked-out best buds Johnny and Fungus in a Haus of Ruckus stage comedy, our intrepid heroes played by company co-founders Calvin Vo and T.J. Green were taking a demented road trip – and encountering many a bizarre human and non-human – in “Jacques”alope at Davenport venue the Mockingbird on Main.

Well, the boys are now back at the Mockingbird for the May 27 through June 5 run of “Pants” Labyrinth, and Haus of Ruckus fans will be delighted to learn that Green's and Vo's signature nuttiness will remain intact. There will be puns. There will be puppets. This time, however, there will be twice as many of them.

“I think with the last one,” says Vo of November's Haus of Ruckus one-act, “it was more of an Alice in Wonderland thing, Like, 'Meet a weird character, move on; meet a weird character, move on.' But this one kind of needed two acts. There's a real story, and there are relationships that we learn about and are built upon, and there are things that the the characters learn about themselves. This all sounds very deep and sort of emotional. But it's really … . It's silly.”

“Silly and stupid,” adds Green.

“Silly and stupid,” Vo agrees. “But we try to write stories first. It's just that in our writing style, they become silly and stupid.”

Perhaps. But based on “Jacques”alope, that silliness and stupidity is actually very smart, and very funny. (Praising the comedy as “innovative stuff,” Reader reviewer Pamela Briggs wrote, “The well-paced 'Jacques'alope includes intermittent streams of hilarious dialogue, and like Skynet or a monkey with a mirror, the show itself is self-aware.”) Vo's and Green's signature style, meanwhile, promises to continue with “Pants” Labyrinth, which reunites audiences with the team of Johnny (Vo) and Fungus (Green), whom Vo references as “kind of like Cheech and Chong, or Bill and Ted.

“In this one,” he explains, “they're heading to the wedding of their best off-stage friend Joe, but they can't find Fungus' pants. And the pants may or may not be in a labyrinth that we may or may not have to quickly find our way through, and they come across creatures and obstacles and puzzles and riddles that aren't really riddles … .”

“It's a love letter to lots of things, especially different kinds of fantasy-adventure stories where you meet wacky characters and creatures. But it's also a bit of a love letter to things like the '70s and disco dancing – there's a lot of that disco-y-ness in there. Without giving away too much, right from the curtain speech, people will sort of get a sense of the '70s.”

As the title suggests, though, “Pants” Labyrinth will also pay tribute to two famed movies with “Labyrinth” in the title: Jim Henson's 1986 fantasy adventure Labyrinth that starred David Bowie, and Guillermo del Toro's Oscar winner from 2006 that memorably gave audiences a nightmarish creature with eyeballs on its palms.

“Labyrinth is one of our favorite films,” says Green, “and this is sort of a send-up to that, because there are puppets and a lot of weird stuff. But also, of course, the title is a pun on the Guillermo del Toro. Generally, the eyeballs stay on the face in this one. But eagle-eyed viewers may be able to catch an eyeball on another body part or two.

“There's also a deconstruction of dancer culture and the nature of what it means to be a good dancer,” he continues. “And I guess ancient Greece sort of fits in, in that we kind of blended the '70s aesthetic and sensibilities with more traditional mythic Greek characters that are recognizable to general audiences. But with a Haus of Ruckus spin on them.”

Green laughs. “I don't know. Like many of our plays, the concept stemmed solely from one of us making a stupid pun when we were hanging out, and Calvin saying, 'Hey, write that down.' And it was written down. And then more stuff was written down.”

This playful Haus of Ruckus approach hasn't been been any impediment toward securing first-rate talents for the company's stage works, and in addition to Green and Vo themselves,“Pants” Labyrinth, like “Jacques”alope, boasts a terrific ensemble of area talents.

“We went to the 'Jacques' cast,” says Vo, “and essentially said, 'Hey, we really like working with you guys – if anyone wants to keep working with us, you're more than welcome to.' Some people were like, 'Oh, I've got an internship' or 'I've got another show' or whatever. But we do have a couple of returning faces that we're really excited about. Max Robnett and Sarah Goodall are both coming back. And because we did a call for submission this time, we've got people working on the show who are new faces for us, like Amelia Fischer, Keenen Wilson, Andres Garcia, Jo Vasquez … . It's nice because the talent level is all still there, and everyone is really bringing their 'A' game.”

Describing “Pants” Labyrinth as “a little less road trip, a little more fantasy adventure” than Haus of Ruckus' last stage offering, Green says that the process of writing the new show was both enjoyable and instructional.

“We had written 'Jacques'alope pre-pandemic,” says Green, “so that show's Johnny and Fungus were sort of representative of T.J. and Calvin at that point. So it was funny to write Johnny and Fungus post-pandemic, and see the way the pandemic shaped not only us, but our self-written characters. And I think Calvin and I sort of have a writing rapport now, and can borrow from what worked in 'Jacques'alope. But it was also kind of exciting to write types of characters that we haven't gotten to write yet. Like, 'We haven't written a little jerk character yet. Let's write a little jerk!'”

Being Haus of Ruckus, Green and Vo are also writing for little puppets.

“In our last show,” says Vo, “we reached out to a couple places, but ended up being able to do the puppets in-house. And in that, I think we learned, 'Wow, this is something that is accessible to us in a way that we can do it in multiple shows.' What I really, really enjoy about puppets is it gets us to sort of have a wide range of characters – not just in terms of voices, but in size and shape and material they're built with and how they function and how they move. I think we've got four in this one – there were two in the last one – and each puppet has a different way of being articulated and lending itself to a completely different character.”

While Green is credited as the show's director, he admits, “Calvin and I are essentially co-directing. Acting notes come through me, and Calvin will tell me behind closed doors everything I'm doing wrong.”

Yet “Pants” Labyrinth will no doubt share the duo's collective comedic vision – one that will be displayed again later this year when Green and Vo deliver their debuting Aristophanes adaptation for Genesius Guild's season-ending The Frogs, and one sure to be on view in Mockingbird presentations of Haus of Ruckus' Lucha“dorks” (August 26 through September 4) and Spooky Pete (November 11 through 20).

“A lot of people see our season and go, 'Are these just puns?'” says Vo. “But we've sort of got a back catalog of a bunch of different stories that we can write and characters that we can put places. We've also got a back catalog of puns. But when you see the shows listed in the season, those are stories that are actually fully fleshed out,” whether transpiring over one or two acts. Though absolutely no more than that.

“We won't ever do a three-act play,” promises Green. “Our arms would get really tired.”

“Pants” Labyrinth runs in downtown Davenport May 27 through June 5, admission is $10, and per the Haus of Ruckus norm, the show times are very specific: 7:08 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and 2:14 p.m. on Sundays. For more information, visit TheMockingbirdOnMain.com and Haus of Ruckus on Facebook and Instagram, and reservations are available by e-mailing HausOfRuckusQC@gmail.com.