Patrick Livesey presents, as a part of the 2024 Melbourne Fringe Festival, the premiere season of

I hope this means something
Written and performed by Patrick Livesey
Directed by Benjamin Nichol

A story of isolation, sacrifice, and the climate crisis. By two of Fringe’s most celebrated artists.

An activist with a history of mental illness sets themself on fire. Will we ever know exactly why? I hope this means something ventures beyond the science of the climate crisis to uncover a fragile mind squarely undone by it. A story of one person becoming increasingly radicalised by the world around them, this powerful world premiere season explores a world where the boundaries between sane and insane, fact and fiction, disintegrate.

Recipient of 11 Fringe Festival Awards, Patrick Livesey returns to the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2024 with this urgent and confronting new solo work, skilfully realised under the direction of Green Room Award-Winner Benjamin Nichol (SIRENS, Kerosene).

Following award-winning turns in DIRT and Naomi, Livesey once again dives beneath the banal to bring you a visceral, vulnerable, and vital story that reflects the weight of a dying planet on the human soul.

Patrick Livesey (they/them) is a multi-award-winning theatre artist best known for their Green Room Award-nominated performance in DIRT and their critically revered solo work, Naomi. Patrick’s first solo production, The Boy, George premiered at Melbourne Fringe in 2018 receiving the NZ Tour Ready Award and a nomination for Best Performance. Since then, they’ve toured multiple productions around the country, receiving multiple awards including Best Performance from FRINGE WORLD in 2022, The Frank Ford Award from Adelaide Fringe in 2021 and the Adelaide Critics Circle Award in both 2021 and 2022. Patrick is a 2022 recipient of the Marten Bequest for Acting. In addition to this their playwriting has been shortlisted for the Cooper Prize (for Walpurgisnacht) and recognised with The Fast Track Award from Midsumma Festival (for Woolf).

I hope this means something is the inaugural recipient of the Melbourne Fringe Climate Crisis Commission, supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation.

★★★★★ – Stage Whispers (Naomi)
★★★★★ – The Barefoot Review (Naomi)
★★★★★ – The Advertiser (Naomi)
★★★★ ½ – The Age (Naomi)
★★★★ – Time Out Melbourne (Naomi)
★★★★★ – Glam Adelaide (DIRT)
★★★★★ – AU Review (DIRT)
★★★★★ – On The House (DIRT)
★★★★★ – Stage Whispers (DIRT)
★★★★★ – Theatre Travels (DIRT)
★★★★ ½ – In Daily (DIRT)

Created and performed by Patrick Livesey
Directed by Benjamin Nichol
Mentored by Kamarra Bell-Wykes
Production managed by Rosie Osmond
Set and costume design by M*ck McKeague
Lighting design by Natalia Velasco Moreno
Sound design and composition by Gary Watling
Video design by Aron Murray
Publicity by Sassy Red PR

2 – 13 October 2024
Tues – Sun 7:30pm, Sun 5pm
Preview Wed 2 October 7:30pm
Opening Night Thurs 3 October 7:30pm
Tickets: $55 Extra Applause, $45 Full, $35 Concession, $25 Preview and Grps 6+, $15 MFringe Pass Holder, $10 Blak Tix
Bookings: Online via www.patrickhlivesey.com (this event has assigned seating)
Venue: Chapel off Chapel (The Loft) – 12 Little Chapel Street, Prahran
www.patrickhlivesey.com

Duration: 70 minutes, no interval
Age Suitability: 15+
Warnings: mild coarse language, references to suicide, death, mental health, drug and alcohol abuse