Before I Forget review – actors shine in moving story of dementia, language and legacy

Source: The Guardian Australia · 2026-10-31T19:00:52.000Z · World

Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne When the three leads share the stage, this poignant new work crackles with energy and wit. But it sags in the moments between Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email Some theatrical ideas come with poignancy and depth baked into their conceit, as if a playwright need only set the characters down in a situation for the work to write itself. Before I Forget, the tale of three generations of First Nations women grappling with the early-onset dementia of their matriarch – a famed linguist and academic who holds decades of ancestral knowledge in her rapidly unravelling mind – should be just such a play. It is moving and resonates outwards. But it ultimately fails to deliver on its powerful promise, as if haunted by a better play waiting in the wings. It opens on a lecture – a didactic mode which, in this work, the playwright, Kamarra Bell-Wykes, never fully shakes – delivered by Faith Well (Roxanne McDonald), celebrating her work with the Badtjala/Butchella language and the dictionary she produced for future generations. Her memory falters mid-speech and suddenly we are in the present: her daughter, Karma (Melodie Reynolds-Diarra), and granddaughter, Hope (Tyallah Bullock), need to know where the keys are, and grandma has forgotten again. Continue reading...

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