Over the weekend, a night full of whimsical fun and musical performance filled the Doudna Fine Arts Center as The Fourth Wall kicked off Doudna’s 2024-2025 Premier Events with its performance “Fruit Flies Like a Banana.” 

The Massachusetts-based hybrid arts group utilizes breaking its namesake fourth wall, an imaginary barrier between performers and the audience, to engage with the audience and perform in a way that is typically unseen. 

The group, consisting of flutist Hilary Abigana, bass trombonist C. Neil Parsons and percussionist Greg Jukes, formed in 2010.

The Fourth Wall’s show takes inspiration from the longest running show in Chicago theater, “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind” performed by the Neo-Futurists. In the show, the performers would allow the audience to choose the order of 30 short plays in the span of an hour. Similarly, “Fruit Flies Like a Banana” allows the audience to control which order their musical acts are performed. 

The group practices “Fruit Flies Like a Banana” not with explicit choreography but rather spontaneous planning. They will set out the cards of their acts and select cards in a random order to help simulate how real time shows would play out. Sometimes, the practice is mellow, and other times the practice is highly energetic.

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SUBMITTED PHOTO | THE DOUDNA FINE ARTS CENTER The Fourth Wall trombonist C. Neil Parsons holds up the name of the final song going to be performed at The Theatre in Doudna Fine Arts Center Saturday. The Fourth Wall tasked the audience to pick the song order in the second half of "Fruit Flies Like A Banana" and closed the night with "Straw Yellow" ("La Escoba" traditional by arr. Terry L. Baldrige).

New ideas for acts within the show are constantly being pitched, even the bad ideas, Abigana said. She finds the bad ideas make for some of the most unique aspects of the show, even if it requires a lot of failing first before making the act a success. 

“Be comfortable failing and learn from failures,” said Abigana. 

“Fruit Flies Like a Banana” was originally created for fringe festivals—smaller, often unconventional, free events happening on the fringe of bigger events, concerts and shows. The title references the phrase, “Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana,” referencing both the quickly ticking timer the group had to fully perform their act during said festivals and the humor of word play. 

“It’s a silly joke that is meant to be interpreted in two ways,” Jukes said. “Everyone is going to play with the language in their own way or just laugh at the joke.” 

While “Fruit Flies Like a Banana,” which is now well over 500-600 shows in, according to Jukes, has not been to Doudna before, two of The Fourth Wall’s members have been.

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SUBMITTED PHOTO | THE DOUDNA FINE ARTS CENTER Flutist Hilary Abigana teaches audience members how to play the flute during "Fruit Flies Like a Banana" at The Theatre in the Doudna Fine Arts Center Saturday.

Jukes was previously on campus as stage manager for the Boston Circus Guild’s performance at Doudna’s 15th Anniversary Gala, and Parsons previously appeared at Doudna in 2012 with a different group performing “The Flute on Its Feet.”  

The Fourth Wall’s next performance is set to take place at the Clay County Fair in Spencer, Iowa. To see more of the group, its social media can be found @thefourthwallensemble, and their website at thefourthwall.com. 

Doudna Performing Arts Center’s next Premier Event is set to take place on Sept. 7 at 7:30 p.m. with tickets on sale at doudnatix.com. 

Luke Brewer can be reached at 581-2812 or at lsbrewer@eiu.edu.