In a town where it’s hard to rustle up three buddies on moving day, La MaMa grande dame Ellen Stewart can get 23 people to strip to the waist, run madly about a stage, and shimmy unconvincingly through a host of Greek myths. How does she do it? She must inspire nearly psychotic loyalty – in the past, actors have rappelled down ropes for her, clambered about in the La MaMa Annex’s upper reaches, and risked making fools of themselves in extremely tatty wigs. As one audience member remarked as we filed out: “They do it for the love.” And if love is measured by how blind it makes us, Ms. Stewart commands more love than anyone I know.

This time, the Great Jones Repertory throws itself enthusiastically into “Herakles Via Phaedra.” The show was first performed in 1987 and many of the aesthetic choices have stayed resolutely in that decade: A program note celebrates composer Genji Ito’s “prescient” discovery of the synthesizer and lame thongs feature prominently in the costume design.

Following along in the synopsis, audiences can see an impressively wide swath cut through Greek myth. All of the big stories about both Theseus (the guy who cold-cocked the Minotaur) and Hercules (wearing Dockers and football pads) spin past us in two hours, each one dealt with in impressive haste. It helps that Hercules’s 12 labors can be performed as 12 dance-offs. (Nemean lion? Ka-pow! Aegean Stables? Dudes with mops on skateboards!)

Much of what Ms. Stewart unearths for her rambling pieces is off the classically beaten path. Even mythology buffs might not know that Phaedra once approached her husband Theseus dressed as a boy, but Ms. Stewart has rooted out the relevant vase-painting and stirred the morsel into her pot. In someone else’s hands, this depth of research might have led to a richer work. Instead, it becomes just another two-minute episode in a string of such episodes. Poor cross-dressed Phaedra soon gets upstaged by Aphrodite, who chews gum and dresses like Tina Turner. And then the chap with the live snake outdoes her.

Still, there are pleasures – campy ones – to be had. Arnold Schwarzenegger has sadly found different things to do with his time than to star in films like (his breakthrough) “Hercules Goes Bananas.” Even Harry Hamlin has dismounted his claymation Pegasus of “Clash of the Titans.” This has left a vacuum in the cheesy Classics genre, one that only Ms. Stewart is bold enough to fill. Do you secretly believe Hera, temperamental queen of the gods, used to thwap people with her purse? Then grab some popcorn and settle in for Ms. Stewart’s latest, bizarre-o extravaganza.

***

If Ms. Stewart seems trapped the 1980s wishing they were the 1970s, Peter Rose is all about making the 1980s look like the 1960s. Part of the cadre that founded P.S. 122, Mr. Rose has fetched up at his old haunt again – and is up to his very old tricks. He tells us in the program that the hodgepodge of reminiscences, Polish spouting, and poached Eliot poems exist to “reveal his humanity and vulnerability… the light within.” But “Cleansing the Senses,” a self-indulgent roster of nonsense, only works briefly when Mr. Rose gives us a glimpse, rather proudly, of his own vanities and self-delusion.

The worst of it, and it does get pretty bad, involves Mr. Rose doffing everything but some bicycle shorts and skidding around in a puddle of water. Clearly willing to bend every which way for us, it’s actually the eagerness, rather than the falling, that will make you flinch. Quoting Shakespeare, portentously lighting and blowing out candles, he prevails heavily on our patience. By the time Mr. Rose, not smelling very sweet, crawled into the audience and sang, my hand to God, “C’mon, you people now, smile on your brother,” I was ready to throw fruit.

But Mr. Rose has actually taken a long, hard look at himself. His account of being a counter-culture hero in Los Angeles, irritating everyone with his pretension, and crossing his fingers for a guest spot on “thirtysomething,” finally has the ring of truth. Despite the tangible nostalgia of the form, and a wistful look back at Grotowski’s influence on the East Village, Mr. Rose actually seems glad to have escaped those days. It’s just that after his show, I think I know how he feels.

“Herakles Via Phaedra” until June 11 (74A E. 4th Street, between Bowery and Second Avenue, 212-475-7710).

“Cleansing the Senses” until May 28 (150 First Avenue at 9th Street, 212-352-3101).