Overview:

Colombian-born artist Sorany Gutiérrez will debut her world premiere immersive performance, Inner Passage, at Dallas’s Todo Sababa this August. Adapted from the work of award-winning playwright Diego Fernando Montoya, the production reimagines the myth of Bluebeard within the venue's unique architecture. Performances are scheduled for August 20–22 and August 26–28, offering audiences an interactive experience exploring themes of memory and violence.

DALLAS — Theatergoers looking for a traditional stage production will need to leave their expectations at the door.

This August, Colombian-born Dallas artist Sorany Gutiérrez will debut Inner Passage, a world premiere immersive performance that turns Todo Sababa’s historic Old East Dallas building into an active participant in the storytelling. Rather than sitting in assigned seats, audiences will move throughout the space as theater, performance art and installation merge into a single experience. 

Presented over six evenings—August 20–22 and August 26–28—Inner Passage is adapted from Abismos, a work by Colombian playwright Diego Fernando Montoya, recipient of Colombia’s 2025 National Playwriting Award. The English-language adaptation has been translated by Aaron Zilbermann and developed specifically for Todo Sababa’s unique architecture, allowing the building itself to shape the production. 

Unlike conventional theater, every element of Inner Passage—from movement and sound to lighting, objects and audience pathways—has been created in direct response to the building’s physical environment. The result is a performance where there is no fixed stage, no traditional seating and no clear separation between audience and artist. 

The production revisits the myth of Bluebeard through a contemporary lens, weaving together fragments of testimony, memory, dreams and repetition to examine how violence can persist through language and lived experience. Rather than presenting a linear narrative, Inner Passage invites audiences into an emotional landscape where meaning emerges through exploration and interaction. 

The premiere also marks the continuation of a creative partnership between Gutiérrez and Montoya that helped define Todo Sababa’s artistic vision. In 2023, the pair transformed the unfinished building into an experimental performance space with Siete piedras en el living, a production that surrounded audiences with projections, sound and exposed architectural elements. The performance was praised by Onstage NTX as “a one-person Spanish language tour de force” that left a lasting emotional impression. 

Today, Todo Sababa founders Mileisi Piedrahita Bula and Aaron Zilbermann continue to position the venue as a home for experimental, interdisciplinary and site-specific art. Through Inner Passage, the organization hopes to foster lasting creative exchanges between Dallas artists and international collaborators, including future partnerships with artists in Cali, Colombia. 

Montoya is currently serving as an artist-in-residence at Casa Sababa during rehearsals, working alongside the creative team while helping shape the organization’s long-term residency program and vision for supporting visiting artists. He will remain in Dallas through the opening weekend of performances. 

Event Information

  • What: Inner Passage (World Premiere)
  • When: August 20, 21, 22, 26, 27 and 28, 2026, at 8:30 p.m.
  • Where: Todo Sababa, 4308 Gaston Ave., Dallas
  • Tickets: $30 on a sliding scale, with a limited number of complimentary tickets available
  • Runtime: Approximately 60 minutes
  • Language: English
  • Recommended Age: 16+
  • Content Advisory: Mature themes 

Inner Passage is produced by Sorany Gutiérrez in collaboration with Todo Sababa and Pasionaria Laboratorio Escénico. The production is supported by the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture and Metamorphosis: A New Living Theater.