Genesius Guild's “Plutus,” July 20 through 28

Saturday, July 20, through Sunday, July 28

Lincoln Park, 1120 40th Street, Rock Island IL

Returning for their third consecutive blast of season-ending silliness in Rock Island's Lincoln Park, the Haus of Ruckus duo of Tee Green and Calvin Vo will lend their signature wit – and that of Guild founder Don Wooten – to a new version of the Aristophanes comedy Plutus, its July 20 through 28 run treating patrons to, as Green says, “an example of satire written in ancient Greece that still holds up in 2024. Which is a bummer.”

To be clear, Green isn't saying that the Guild's play is a bummer. No summer-season closer for the classical-theatre company ever could be, given the annual one-act barrage of jokes, pop-culture references, tongue-in-cheek musical numbers, and slapstick culminating in the traditionally beloved Mack Sennett chase. What is a bummer, though, is that the themes Aristophanes explored and satirized in 388 BCE are still so relevant today,

As Green explains of the Haus of Ruckus team's third annual comedy in the park (following 2022's The Frogs and 2023's The Wasps), Plutus “is the story of this Greek guy named Chremylos and his unpaid intern Cario, and they hunt down Plutus, the god of wealth, who has taken the form of this blind, decrepit guy. They basically convince him that they're going to return his eyesight, because with the blind man only hanging out with corrupt people, the virtuous do not get access to him. It's a metaphor, obviously.

“And then the goddess of poverty gets involved,” Green continues, “and in true Greek-comedy fashion, a bunch of characters show up who all do weird things … . And there are a couple of original song parodies, and of course, the chase at the end. That's the one thing that, all three years we've done the comedy, everyone really wants.”

Adds Vo, “Every year, someone says, 'Hey, make sure you keep that knee-shattering chase!'”

“That's pretty much what the audience goes to the comedy for,” kids Green. “To sit patiently through the show and then clap for the chase.”

As fans of Genesius Guild's season-ending spoofs know, there are actually plenty of other reasons to attend, and for decades, the main one was the chance to witness Wooten's alternately bighearted, biting, and ridiculous takes on classical Greek works. Since '22, though, Green and Vo have been putting their own signature spin on those Wooten texts, which they'll do again in this updating of Genesiud's Plutus from 2014.

“The past two years,” says Green, “with The Frogs and The Wasps, we were sent the original Don scripts and sort of told, 'Use this as a framework, and feel free to make it your own.' But this time around, for Plutus, it's more like 'Use this as a framework, and update some jokes and references.'”

The process, Green and Vo agree, has been both challenging and liberating. “In some ways,” says Green, “it was easier to go from the ground up in building the show, because then there's sort of a flow to it. But there was also something really relaxing about taking the document as it was and changing a mention of, say, Obama, to something more relevant for 2024.”

“Don comes from a different school of writing and theatre than we do,” says Vo. “His writing is much more scholarly, I think, than how we approach stuff. But it was fun to ask ourselves, 'In what ways can we speak to an audience so that it sounds like they're being spoken to today?' The Plutus story is the same story from however many thousand years ago. And the themes are the same. We haven't changed that stuff. All we've done is updated it to be accessible and relevant to a 2024 audience.”

“I will say that it's sometimes rough comparing Don's writing to ours, in terms of how eloquently written Don's scripts are,” adds Green. “Sometimes I'll look at a line I wrote next to a Don line and I'm like, 'Am I a preschooler?'”

With Green's and Vo's Plutus boasting Joe Sager as Chremylus, Jacob Lund as Cario, Don Faust as Plutus, and additional figures of fun portrayed by Wiz Wooley, Avalon Willowbloom, Nathan Elgatian, Kevin Keck, and Terry Green, the show promises to boast all the traditional tenets of Genesius Guild's season-ending comedies. Fans of Haus of Ruckus' own comedies, however, won't be ignored.

Although no original puppets are being designed for the Aristophanes, Vo says, “There are some 'non-actor plush stage partners.' We call them cameos. Because the show is called Plutus and not The Frogs, there's not a chorus of specific animals or what have you to reference with puppets this time.”

Plus, as both Genesius Guild and Haus of Ruckus regularly deliver, there will be music – and music you'll likely recognize.

“Because it's such a short turnaround on putting these up,” says Vo, “we go the parody avenue. And on top of that, because we're going to mangle the songs lyrically and our lyrics don't necessarily scan rhythmically, you want tunes where you're like, 'Everyone's heard this a million times.'”

Green adds, “Two of the songs this year are ABBA songs. Mainly because everybody knows ABBA, and I know those songs very well … .”

“You just think ABBA is funny,” counters Vo.

“Yeah!” Green agrees. “ABBA's funny! They're doing a concert but they're all holograms?! That's funny!

Genesius Guild's Plutus will be presented in Rock Island's Lincoln Park July 20 through 28, performances are on Saturdays and Sundays at 7 p.m., and admission is free, though donations are encouraged and appreciated. For more information, visit Genesius.org.