{{Short description|Australian actor and director}} {{other people}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}} {{Use Australian English|date=October 2016}} {{Infobox person | name = Richard Davey | image = Richard Innes Davey.JPG | caption = Richard Innes Davey – in mid scene of "The Ship That Never Was" | birth_name = Richard Innes Davey | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1938|11|04}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2013|03|13|1938|11|04}} | occupation = Actor, playwright | years_active = 1958–2013 }}

'''Richard Innes Davey''' (4 November 1938 – 13 March 2013) was an [[Australians|Australian]] actor, director and writer. He was the founder of the Round Earth Company and advocate for the understanding of the [[Macquarie Harbour Penal Station]] on [[Macquarie Harbour Penal Station|Sarah Island]] on the [[West Coast, Tasmania|West Coast]] of [[Tasmania]].

Earlier he had been artistic director of [[The Hole in the Wall Theatre]] in [[Perth]], Western Australia from 1969 -1971.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://australianplays.org/playwright/asc-54.html|archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20100623020700/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/120606/20100623-1207/australianplays.org/playwright/asc-54.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2010-06-23|title=Australian Web Archive}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ozscript.org/playwright54.html |title=Richard Davey &#124; OzScript |access-date=2013-04-16 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120722194216/http://www.ozscript.org/playwright54.html |archive-date=22 July 2012 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

==Work== Over ten years of the [[Round Earth Theatre Company]] at [[Strahan, Tasmania|Strahan]], and work on Sarah Island as a guide, Davey's work has had significance in helping tourists understand the penal station and its context, where previously there had been scattered and not very accessible research. ''[[The Ship That Never Was]]'', written by Davey, is Australia's longest-running play, with over 5,000 performances and continuing to be performed nightly at Strahan; it is about the [[Frederick escape]], the successful escape of 10 convicts from Sarah Island to Chile.<ref>ABC Radio National, ''[http://www.abc.net.au/rn/artworks/stories/2007/2085488.htm Artworks]'', ABC Radio, 11 November 2007. Accessed 6 October 2008</ref>

His book ''The Sarah Island Conspiracies: Being an account of twelve voyages to Macquarie Harbour and Sarah Island'', which was short listed for a major prize in Hobart in 2005, complements the work of [[Richard Flanagan]]'s ''[[Gould's Book of Fish]]''. They both use the painting by [[William Buelow Gould]] of the [[Weedy sea dragon]] on the covers of their books.

Davey's long lasting interest in Shakespeare's ''[[King Lear]]''<ref>{{Citation | title=King Lear (20 October 1981 - 24 October 1981) [Event Description] | publication-date=1981 | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/232259235 | access-date=30 December 2023}}</ref><ref>http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/contributor/458 1967 and 1981 – http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/25340</ref> saw production in November 2007 of an adaptation ''The Madness of King Lear''<ref>[http://www.australianstage.com.au/reviews/tasmania/the-madness-of-king-lear-945.html Australian Stage Online – The Madness of King Lear ]</ref> in Hobart, Tasmania.

Davey died on 13 March 2013 after a long battle with illness.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2013/03/13/374542_most-popular-stories.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130410022707/http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2013/03/13/374542_most-popular-stories.html |archive-date=10 April 2013 |language=en |access-date=26 August 2023 |title=Richard Davey dies at 74 |newspaper=The Mercury}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.westannouncements.com.au/obituaries/thewest-au/obituary.aspx?pid=163644276#fbLoggedOut |title = Obituaries &#124; the West Announcements}}</ref>

== See also == * [[Convicts on the West Coast of Tasmania]] * [[Macquarie Harbour]]

==Audio recordings== * {{Citation | author1=Davey, Richard | title=Richard Davey interviewed by Rob Willis in the Rob Willis folklore collection | date=2009 | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/35472860 | access-date=17 April 2013 }}

==Plays== * (1982) Tell 'em you're Maoris (Put Your Boots On){{citation needed|date=December 2019}} * (1983) Broken Dreams{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} * (1984) The Ship That Never Was<ref>{{Citation | author1=Davey, Richard | author2=Fitzpatrick, Phil | title=The ship that never was : the last great escape from Sarah Island, Macquarie Harbour : liberty or death! | date=2003 | publisher=Round Earth Co | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/17761241 | access-date=17 April 2013 }}</ref> * (1984) Hallelujah Lady Jane<ref>{{Citation | author1=Davey, Richard | title=Hallelujah Lady Jane | date=1980 | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/36682153 | access-date=17 April 2013 }}</ref> * (1986) Guarding the Perimeter{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} * (1986) Scapegoats<ref>{{Citation | author1=Davey, Richard, 1938–2013, (organizer.) | author2=Theatre Royal (Hobart, Tas.) (host institution) | author3=Zootango Theatre Company (Tas.) (issuing body) | title=Scapegoats : Zootango presents Scapegoats | date=1986 | publisher=[Tasmania] Zootango | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/204611941 | access-date=30 August 2018 }}</ref> * (1986) A Cry From The Heart{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} * (1986) The Catfish that cried<ref>{{Citation | author1=Davey, Richard | author2=Carroll, Jeff, (composer,) | title=The catfish that cried : an opera for children | date=1986 | publisher=Morley, Western Australia Published by Children's Activities Time Society (Inc) | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/200459263 | access-date=30 August 2018 }}</ref> * (1986) Hook's Mountain{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} * (1995) A Bright and Crimson Flower<ref>{{Citation | author1=Davey, Richard | author2=Round Earth Company | title=A bright and crimson flower | date=1995 | publisher=The Round Earth Company | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/21798208 | access-date=30 August 2018 }}</ref> * (2004) The Case Of The Missing Rations{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}

==Books== * {{Citation | author1=Davey, Richard | title=Don't park your swan on the grass | date=1984 | publisher=Salamanca Theatre Company | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/22022997 | access-date=17 April 2013 }} * {{Citation | author1=Davey, Richard | author2=Pigot, Neil | author3=Davey, Anita | title=A bright and crimson flower | date=1993 | publisher=Crimson Flower Project | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/11469643 | access-date=17 April 2013 }} * Davey, Richard, (2002) ''The Sarah Island conspiracies : being an account of twelve voyages made by one G.K. to Macquarie Harbour on the western coast of Van Diemens Land 1822–1833'' Strahan, Tas. : Round Earth Co., {{ISBN|0-9750051-0-3}} (Reproduction of a memoir dated 1896 authored by an anonymous clerk G.K. )

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==Further reading== * {{Citation | title=[Biographical cuttings on Richard Davey, playwright, containing one or more cuttings from newspapers or journals] | date=1900 | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/35877297 | access-date=17 April 2013 }} * [[Nicholas Shakespeare|Shakespeare, Nicholas]], ''In Tasmania '' Milsons Point, N.S.W. : Random House Australia, 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-74166-906-0}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davey, Richard Innes}} [[Category:Australian male dramatists and playwrights]] [[Category:Australian non-fiction writers]] [[Category:Australian theatre directors]] [[Category:Western Tasmania]] [[Category:1938 births]] [[Category:2013 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century Australian dramatists and playwrights]] [[Category:21st-century Australian dramatists and playwrights]] [[Category:Australian male non-fiction writers]]