A solo performance from Fringe old-hand Pip Utton. Michael is giving his funeral speech for wife Chrissie, and telling stories of her descent into dementia to become someone he no longer recognised, the devastation brought by the illness to those who have to watch the sufferer change. Forward a few months and we see Michael having to face travelling the same path, and the emotions that brings in the light of his previous experience. Anger, frustration, guilt, fear. And some humour too.
The title comes from a line in a letter Chrissie wrote in the earlier stages of her decline, and encapsulates the pain of this disease. Utton's performance is remarkable for its ordinariness, the lack of melodrama, the sense that this can happen to anyone, even whilst being emotionally draining. It's a hard watch at times, but a rewarding one, and not without a sense of hope.
Recommended.
Before I Forget I Love You, I Love You, had it's final performance in the New Town Theatre on 25 August.
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