Haus of Ruckus' “Punk Rock Lobster,” January 19 through 28

Friday, January 19, through Sunday, January 28

Black Box Theatre, 1623 Fifth Avenue, Moline IL

They've taken us to a purportedly haunted house, the interior of a video-game, labyrinths out of Greek mythology, and even, at one point, Colorado. But with the debut of Haus of Ruckus' latest comedy Punk Rock Lobster – running at Moline's Black Box Theatre January 19 through 28 – company founders and figureheads T. Green and Calvin Vo will be bringing audiences somewhere entirely new: under the sea.

"Yeah, we go underwater in this one," says Green during a recent phone interview with the Haus of Ruckus artists. "And Punk Rock Lobster is very exciting for me, and I think for you, too. I'm saying 'You, too' addressing Calvin, not the band. Although it is very exciting for me and Bono. But we sort of prescribe to a punk-theatre philosophy, and it's been cool to bring that music genre into one of our plays, and that philosophy into one of our plays."

"We're also excited about it because we love the aquarium," adds Vo.

"Yes," agrees Green. "We do love the aquarium."

The latest nutty adventure for Vo's and Green's frequent stage alter egos Johnny and Fungus, Punk Rock Lobster involves both sets of besties in another one-act adventure, this one with a true humanitarian (or rather, crustacean) bent.

In the comedy, says Green, "Johnny and Fungus go to a fancy restaurant, and they're sort of interested in this lobster they see there, and they make a plan to break it out. But they discover that it isn't just a lobster – it's a punk-rock lobster. Then there's this uprising and a battle for this punk club that's in the clutches of an evil landlord. And of course there's live music and puppets.

"I feel like this was one of our earlier ideas," Green continues. "Like, I remember being on the porch where we'd hang out in 2020, when it was really early Haus of Ruckus – just throwing ideas around. And one of us was like, 'Instead of a Rock Lobster [referencing the classic B-52's song] , what if it was a Punk Rock Lobster?' I think that was me. If it's something stupid, it was probably me who said it.

"But it was this idea that we didn't want to touch until we'd written seven plays and were like, 'All right, let's see what might be there in Punk Rock Lobster.' And then we sort of found ourselves in a situation where there was this kind of punk anger in us, and this desire to really come back with a pop for our third season after our second season was cut short. It felt like this would be the perfect time to do it."

"Punk is really interesting," says Vo, "because today, it looks a lot different than it did maybe 30, 40 years ago, and it's got some really complicated beginnings. So there's this really nice era of punk right in the late-'70s/early-'80s that we're really trying to emulate with some of the vibe, some of the sound. So you might hear some things from bands like Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, the Ramones, the Damned ... ." (As to whether we'll hear the B-52's and their 1978 lobster hit, Vo teases, "Ma-a-a-aybe ... ?")

Focused work on Haus of Ruckus' latest script began, Vo says, when he, Green, and their cast were remounting the company's 2021 debut "Jacques"alope at the Elgin Fringe Festival this past September.

"We had the idea, a sort of skeleton of what it was going to look like, and then we started putting major plot points together and writing some dialogue – that's sort of how it goes for us. We'll have a funny/weird title with a basic outline of a story, and then in the middle of another show, we'll be in pre-pre-production, and pre-pre-writing, for the next-next show."

For Punk Rock Lobster, Green and Vo are reuniting with a number of their previous collaborators, the cast including Race Bakeris, Amelia Fischer, Andres Garcia, Sarah Goodall, Max Robnett, Jo E. Vasquez, David Weaver, and Keenen Wilson. Several of them trekked to Elgin to appear in "Jacques"alope, and Green says of Ruckus' first experience with a Fringe Festival, "It was nice to perform for an audience mostly of people who had never heard of us before. It was also nice that they didn't pull out tomatoes or pitchforks."

"We didn't know what it was going to be like performing for people who don't know us and aren't in the Quad Cities. So at Elgin, it was surprising to see that the response was the same kind of responses we get – which is that people seem to have a lot of fun and seem to think we're funny. Also what's cool at Fringe is that you get to perform in front of other eclectic performers, other writers, other people who are doing stuff that's maybe not the same as yours, but you're sort of following similar trajectories."

After last year's tragic collapse of the downtown-Davenport apartment building that housed Ruckus' frequent Mockingbird on Main venue, Green, Vo, and their castmates have been performing at the Black Box Theatre, and as Vo says, "It's definitely working, Lora (Adams) is incredibly generous and accommodating, and has been nothing but super-helpful during this whole thing – hosting our benefit show, hosting 'Jacques' and this show. And obviously, we're doing our best to be good collaborators.

"But like every theatre in the area," Vo continues, "the Black Box has a program of shows that they're running, too, and so it's hard to always fit into the empty spots, because every theatre seems to have the same empty spots. So it's working out really well and we love working with Lora, but we're also working on finding our own place."

In the meantime, there's the rest of Haus of Ruckus' 2024 lineup, beginning with a show that opens less than a month after Punk Rock Lobster closes.

"In a very fast turnaround," says Green, "we are going to be back at St. Ambrose with Space Worms. A fun thing about Space Worms is that it's our first concept we ever came up with – though there's maybe about a page of the original script that was salvageable, and everything else is new. That's going up – put your seat belt on – February 24, 25, and then February 29, March 1, 2, and 3."

Those who've enjoyed Green's and Vo's past two summer-ending classical comedies for Genesius Guild will be happy to learn that, says Vo, "We are coming back this year. Our role is not exactly the same, but it's very similar to what we have been doing, and it's something that, I think, will fit very comfortably in our schedule, and something that's going to work out really well for everyone."

"And then," says Green of another Haus of Ruckus comedy that will no doubt have a musical bent, "with the dates not determined yet, we're going to be maybe finishing our season with Ska-mbies. Which is a play I know very little about so far."

Punk Rock Lobster will be performed at Moline's Black Box Theatre from January 19 through 28, and performances are Fridays through Sundays at the traditional Ruckus start time of 7:34 p.m. Tickets are $12 at the door payable by cash or Venmo, reservations are available by e-mailing HausOfRuckusQC@gmail.com, and more information is available at Haus of Ruckus' Facebook page.