A moving new Australian drama confronting early-onset dementia and the preservation of First Nations language has opened in Melbourne, drawing praise for its stellar cast alongside critiques of its didactic script.
Language, Memory and an Unravelling Mind
Staged at the Fairfax Studio in Arts Centre Melbourne, Before I Forget examines the painful intersection between degenerative cognitive decline and cultural preservation. Written by playwright Kamarra Bell-Wykes, the production charts the heart-wrenching circumstances of Faith Well, an accomplished academic and linguist who has dedicated her career to cataloguing and celebrating the Badtjala/Butchella language.
As Faith's memory begins to falter, her family is confronted with both an intimate domestic crisis and a broader cultural tragedy. Decades of irreplaceable ancestral knowledge, previously preserved through a landmark dictionary compiled for future generations, begin to slip away in real time.
The Guardian Australia reported that the narrative opens on a formal lecture delivered by Faith—a didactic framework that the production occasionally struggles to shake—before plunging the audience directly into the disorienting, day-to-day realities of her illness.
Ensemble Chemistry Anchors the Narrative
The emotional core of the play is driven by three generations of women, featuring Roxanne McDonald as Faith, alongside Melodie Reynolds-Diarra as her daughter Karma, and Tyallah Bullock as her granddaughter Hope.
According to critical reception, the production finds its true vitality whenever the three performers share the floor. The Guardian Australia noted that the staging crackles with genuine wit, warmth, and kinetic energy during these ensemble sequences. The domestic interplay effectively captures the acute friction of caring for an ailing matriarch, shifting effortlessly from the high-stakes weight of cultural heritage to mundane household disputes, such as locating misplaced keys.
McDonald’s portrayal conveys the quiet anguish of a scholar losing her most prized faculty, while Reynolds-Diarra and Bullock ground the piece in the practical exhaustion and fierce devotion of modern family carers.
Structural Pitfalls and Narrative Friction
Despite its potent thematic framework and the strength of its cast, the production has faced scrutiny over its uneven pacing and dramatic execution.
Critics observed that while the central conceit possesses inherent theatrical depth, the production sags in the solitary moments between its ensemble scenes. The narrative relies heavily on instructional monologues that occasionally read more like academic discourse than fully realised stage drama, blunting the narrative's emotional momentum.
The review from The Guardian Australia remarked that while the work remains moving and resonates outwards, it ultimately struggles to fully deliver on its immense promise, leaving an impression of a sharper, more fluid drama waiting in the wings.
Preserving Fragile Cultural Legacies
Even with its dramaturgical shortcomings, the staging marks an important contribution to Australia's contemporary theatrical landscape. The production brings urgent focus to the fragility of Indigenous knowledge systems and the vulnerability of languages that rely on living custodians for their survival.
By framing early-onset dementia through an Indigenous lens, Bell-Wykes offers a timely exploration of intergenerational care, intellectual sovereignty, and the grief of forgetting. While the script may falter under the weight of its own ambitions, the central performances ensure the production leaves a lasting emotional footprint.
