Event Description
- Content advice: Contains coarse language, nudity, references and depictions of dementia, reference to death, reference to drug use and mature themes. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are advised that this production contains references to deceased people.
Badtjala/Butchulla/Jagera theatre maker Kamarra Bell-Wykes (A Wake – A Woke Mob, 37) draws loosely on real events to craft this poignant tribute to motherhood, family and culture. Told with wicked humour and deep emotional truth, Before I Forget celebrates the strength of an ancestral line steered by a revered and accomplished matriarch determined to hold on to her legacy as her memory slips away. This compelling new work is a testimony to healing, forgiveness and the unconditional love of family.
Faith Wells (Roxanne McDonald), a prominent First Nations linguist, activist and academic, has spent her life being fiercely independent – until now. As Faith’s dementia escalates, her daughter Karma (Melodie Reynolds-Diarra) finds herself in the unwinnable position of relocating Faith into aged care and selling her home to fund it. Joined by her daughter, Hope (Tyallah Bullock), who is dealing with her own personal struggles, Karma faces the unstoppable force of her mother, who refuses to go quietly.
As boxes are packed and memories picked over, the women are forced to navigate the fraying edges of their lineage as they reckon with the loss not just of a mother, but a cultural leader.
- Written and Directed by: Kamarra Bell-Wykes
- Cast includes: Tyallah Bullock, Roxanne McDonald, Melodie Reynolds-Diarra and Edward Valent.
