Dagger Wound - INFERNO

A sinner descends through seven layers of Hell in search of the lover they have lost. At each level, they encounter a different demonic entity and must endure a new form of torment before continuing deeper into the underworld. When they finally reach their lover, they discover that death cannot be undone. Instead, they must leave a part of themselves behind and return to the living.

Drawing loosely from imagery associated with the seven gates of Jahannam in Islamic tradition, INFERNO transforms this descent into an immersive experimental noise-theatre work about grief, devotion, pain, and the impossible desire to retrieve someone from death. Across seven escalating stages, the central character undergoes forms of body modification including needle play, scarification, and body suspension as the boundaries between physical suffering, ritual, and mourning begin to collapse.

Performed by a cast of queer and trans artists of color, the work combines live performance with an original experimental score, robotics, installation, sculpture, elaborate costuming, special effects, and an animatronic spirit embodying the protagonist’s dead muse. Each encounter pushes the body further as the character attempts to prove that love—and the suffering endured in its name—might somehow be enough to reverse loss.

But the journey ultimately confronts a harder reality: some people cannot be brought back. The descent becomes a reckoning with PTSD, unexpected death, heartbreak, and the ways grief can permanently alter those who survive it. Rather than offering an easy path toward closure, INFERNO enters directly into the frightening, painful, and sometimes beautiful contradictions of mourning—what we carry, what we surrender, and what remains when someone is gone too soon.

The work is created and performed by longtime chosen family and community members mourning Láwû (Mango) Makuriye’nte, the person at its center and a beloved force deeply missed by those who knew them. INFERNO honors their life, their legacy, and the love that continues to connect this community through loss and transformation.

To Hell and back.